AoC responds to National Audit Office report on T Levels

Responding to the National Audit Office report on T Levels, Cath Sezen, Director of Education Policy, Association of Colleges said: "T Levels provide a fantastic opportunity for young people to gain the skills and knowledge to enable them to progress to work and apprenticeships or onto higher education. The feedback from students has been very positive and the industry placement where it works can be a game-changer in helping young people understand the world of work.

"However, as identified by the National Audit Office, the numbers of students are not in line with the Department for Education's initial ambitions and plans. This is not surprising given the very large amount of course content and the heavy assessment requirement.

"These issues, combined with the challenge of finding employers willing to offer high quality industry placements, have restricted numbers and will continue to hinder scaling up.

"This results in T Levels competing mainly with A Levels for students, with the obvious distinction that choosing a T Level narrows work and progression options, whereas choosing three A Levels keeps more options open.

"The work DfE is doing to streamline course content and cut back on assessment for new versions of the first round of T Levels from this September will help open up T Levels to more students, but the numbers are likely to remain lower that originally envisaged.

"We would like to see the Curriculum and Assessment Review propose a broad picture of how T Levels and A Levels fit with other Level 3 qualifications and what the numbers might look like in future years across different options.

"The report also shines a light on the impact of the so-called dynamic pricing model that DfE has agreed with the awarding organisations. At a time when 16 to 18 study programme funding is still below 2010 levels, it is alarming that the exam fees in some subjects, such as education and early years have risen dramatically and are putting enormous pressure on college budgets, from £151 per student in first phase contracts to £375 per student in second phase contracts.

"This suggests there is a fundamental weakness in the contracting model used by DfE for T Levels which results in each awarding organisation having a monopoly on each T Level. Colleges are picking up the tab for poor forecasting of student numbers by having to pay more. The contracting model needs evaluating in terms of the content and assessment too, because we rarely see the same problems with qualifications designed in the awarding organisation market."