UVAC supports the Protect Student Choice campaign by sharing details of its new report with members, warning that scrapping BTECs could block pathways to higher education and skilled employment.

A new report has found that the government’s plan to scrap applied general qualifications (AGQs) such as BTECs, in order to direct more 16- to 18-year-olds to study its new T level qualifications, will create a significant “qualifications gap” that will leave tens of thousands of students without a pathway to higher education or skilled employment in key sectors of the economy.

In December 2024, the government announced a future ban on all diploma (2 A level equivalent) and extended diploma (3 A level equivalent) size AGQs in any subject where there is a T level.

The report published by the Protect Student Choice campaign – a coalition of 28 employer groups and organisations that represent students, staff and leaders in schools, colleges and universities – found this could lead to:

• 52,000 fewer young people studying Health and Science courses each year, a reduction of 45%
• 11,000 fewer young people studying Digital courses each year, a reduction of 33%

The report, Causing gaps, creating uncertainty: why the government should lift the ban on AGQ diplomas and extended diplomas in T level subjects, notes that Life Sciences and Digital are two of the eight priority sectors identified in the government’s Industrial Strategy and concludes that “reducing the number of students studying these subjects will hamper plans to upskill the workforce and act as a barrier to achieving the government’s key mission to kickstart economic growth”.

The qualifications gap across all sectors is likely to be much higher, as the government estimates that just 91,200 students will be studying a T level in England in 2027 (up from 41,589 students in 2025). In contrast, there are currently 277,380 students studying an AGQ, and 2027 is the last year in which these qualifications will be funded. But Skills Minister Jacqui Smith confirmed in a letter to the Protect Student Choice campaign in June 2025 that “The government remains committed to T Levels being the best large qualification in routes where they are available”.

As a result, today’s report highlights that “popular and well-respected AGQs in subjects such as Health and Social Care, Applied Science and IT will be scrapped in 2026, with highly regarded AGQs in Business and Engineering due to follow in 2027”.

Given that AGQs are disproportionately studied by disadvantaged students, the report suggests that scrapping them “risks reversing the recent progress made in widening access to higher education and could lead to an increase in the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET)”. This is described as being “incompatible with one of the government’s other key missions, to break down barriers to opportunity”.

T levels are described as a “welcome development”, but the report suggests they “should sit alongside, rather than replace AGQs”.

The report concludes by urging the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review (CAR) Chaired by Professor Becky Francis to recommend that the government reverses the ban on AGQ diplomas and extended diplomas in T level subjects when it publishes its final report in the autumn. This is “the last chance” to ensure that young people can access these qualifications in the future, but would still require ministers to accept and implement the recommendation.

READ the report