360 school headteachers, academy trust chief executives, and college principals have written to Secretary of State for Education Gillian Keegan urging her to delay the government’s plan to scrap most applied general qualifications such as BTECs by 12 months.
Under current proposals, the Department for Education will publish a list of new qualifications that will replace the current suite of BTECs in July 2024, for schools and colleges to start delivering in September 2025. The school and college leaders describe this timescale as “simply not credible,” and urge the Secretary of State to introduce the new qualifications in September 2026 instead.
Without this 12-month delay, the leaders write that“We will not have sufficient time to ensure that students are on the right courses, or the right staff are in place with the right level of training”.
They point out that prospectuses and marketing materials for courses starting in September 2025 will already have been finalised by July 2024, and engagement work with younger pupils will be well underway. They go on to write that“It will be very difficult to provide effective information, advice and guidance to young people if we do not know what qualifications we can deliver until the end of July 2024.”
