Ministers must delay their controversial planned bonfire of BTECs and other technical qualifications until there is evidence T-levels are a “more effective” replacement, a committee of MPs has warned.
The parliamentary education committee has called for a moratorium on the government’s plan to defund a raft of applied general qualifications (AGQs), warning a “clear track record” of T-level success should be a “prerequisite” to their scrapping.
The Department for Education is working to introduce a streamlined system for students finishing their GCSEs that pushes them to study either A-levels, their new technical equivalent T-levels, or an apprenticeship from 2025.
Alternative AGQs, such as Pearson’s popular BTECs, will only continue to be funded if they do not overlap with T-levels or A-levels and pass a strict new approvals process.
