Ministers have doubled down on a contentious decision to use a single awarding body for each T Level, FE Week can reveal.
Jennifer Coupland, chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, told this publication that following discussions about the model, it will be taken forward in the re-procurement for the first wave of the qualifications set to take place this year.
Using a single awarding organisation (AO) per T Level was a recommendation by Lord Sainsbury in his review of technical education, which the Department for Education agreed to take forward. However, its own researchers warned that with no alternative to step in if problems arose with a contracted body, there was a “risk of system failure”.
Exams regulator Ofqual also “advised on the risks related to the single provider model” ahead of their launch.
