Plans to make it clearer to identify 'high quality' post-16 qualifications

The Department for Education has announced reforms to post-16 qualifications, which will make it easier for young people and adults to identify the course that is right for them after GCSEs.

This is part of a shake up of the post-16 system to remove low-quality qualifications that lack job prospects.

The new system will create two clearly defined paths for people who have completed GCSEs or similar courses: academic, meaning qualifications that primarily lead to further study, and technical, those qualifications that primarily lead to skilled employment. This will mean everyone can see more easily how their studies support their future training or job aspirations.

Apprenticeships, A levels and new T Levels will become the main progression options after GCSEs.

There will continue to be other qualifications on offer, for example in creative and performing arts, but the changes will reduce the number of poor-quality courses or duplication across the system. Qualifications will need to prove they give employers the skills they need or lead to good Higher Education courses, and demonstrate why there is a real need for them to be funded. The reforms come after consultation with the education sector, students and parents and will be phased in from 2023.

Under the new system, employers will also play a key role in helping to design more technical qualifications.

Level 3 qualifications include A levels, T Levels and other options such as BTECs and Cambridge Technicals. They are traditionally taken by young people after GCSEs, but also by many adults who wish to upskill or retrain.

There are currently over 4,000 qualifications at level 3 approved for government funding, with multiple qualifications in the same subject areas available - many of which are poor quality and offer little value to students or employers.

This includes over 200 engineering qualifications, over 200 qualifications in building and construction, and 15 plumbing qualifications, ranging from courses that are 170 learning hours to more than 1,800. In comparison, countries with high-performing technical education systems such as Germany and Switzerland offer fewer than 500 technical qualifications in total.

A recent survey also highlighted that employers were unable to fill a quarter of all vacant positions because they could not find people with the right skills. It also showed that over a quarter of young people were leaving further education poorly prepared for the workplace, further underlining the need for qualifications to be high-quality and provide the skills that employers say they need.