Priorities and challenges for the sixth form sector

There are four important policy developments in the in-tray for sixth form colleges which are all related and concurrent, but distinct from each other in important ways.

First, the introduction of T Levels and the continued funding of applied general qualifications (AGQs). While T Levels represent a welcome part of the government’s strategy to address the skills gap, they are as yet unproven and are unlikely to have mass market appeal; they also have problems associated with finding enough employers to engage, persuading enough students to sign up and raising awareness of what they are and who should choose them. 

As we have highlighted through the Protect Student Choice campaign, AGQs serve a different purpose for a different audience and should happily co-exist with T Levels; their applied learning, alongside their relationship with the workplace, make them equally suited to higher education pathways and to the acquisition of skills valued by employers.