Vocational Education: Assessments

(asked on 8th February 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that there is equitable access to BTEC qualifications.


Answered by
Baroness Berridge Portrait
Baroness Berridge
This question was answered on 22nd February 2021

The department is reviewing post-16 qualifications at level 3 and below, to ensure that every qualification approved for public funding has a distinct purpose, is high quality and supports progression to positive outcomes. BTECs are in the scope of this review.

We have recently consulted on the groups of qualifications we propose should be approved for funding at level 3 alongside A levels and T Levels. This includes qualifications that can be taken alongside or as alternative to A levels, where A levels alone do not cover all the skills, knowledge and understanding needed for every student to thrive at higher education, and technical qualifications where they provide competence in occupations not covered by T Levels. The consultation closed on 31 January 2021 and we are carefully considering all the responses. We will publish a response in due course. This consultation can be found here: https://consult.education.gov.uk/post-16-qualifications-review-team/review-of-post-16-qualifications-at-level-3/.

No decisions have been made about the future of particular qualifications. We have published an Equality Impact Assessment alongside our review that is available here: https://consult.education.gov.uk/post-16-qualifications-review-team/review-of-post-16-qualifications-at-level-3/supporting_documents/Impact%20Assessment%20%20Review%20of%20post16%20qualifications%20at%20level%203_.pdf).

We also want to improve study at level 2 and below, to ensure that students have clear pathways to good outcomes. We published a call for evidence seeking views on post-16 study and qualifications at level 2 and below, which closed on 14 February 2021, and we will set out further proposals in 2021. More information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/post-16-study-at-level-2-and-below-call-for-evidence.

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