Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on replacing existing technical qualifications with new qualifications.

The Government is committed to radically reforming technical education provision and the wider skills system in England in line with the recommendations of Lord Sainsbury’s Independent Panel on Technical Education. These were accepted in the Post-16 Skills Plan, published on 8 July 2016. Copies of both documents have been placed in the libraries of both Houses.

The reforms will tackle longstanding issues which have affected our nation’s productivity and international competitiveness over many years. They will replace the confusing patchwork of thousands of qualifications of variable quality with fifteen routes to skilled employment. The new routes will include far fewer but consistently better qualifications. These will be shaped by industry professionals and will provide stretching technical content, delivered to industry standards.

We plan to fund the new technical qualifications once they have been approved, and over time we expect to cease funding similar qualifications. We will not withdraw funding for students who are partway through their courses. We are currently working through the detail of our proposals and expect to publish further information in due course.