The ‘bonfire of BTECs’ has now been extinguished – so where do we go from here? Following the outcomes of the Rapid Review, Kevin Gilmartin clarifies the findings and looks at the post-16 landscape going forward.

Rising from the ashes

What is the background?

It was David Cameron’s government, back in 2016, that first established the proposals for Level 3 reform with the Sainsbury Review. New qualifications, T levels, were the future, at the heart of a move towards a binary system. Applied General Qualifications (AGQs) were to be abolished (with BTECs forming about 80% of AGQs, the phrase ‘bonfire of the BTECs’ was coined).

The aim was to encourage more young people to go into technical education and not on to university degrees that were often perceived by the government as being of low quality and not resulting in a graduate level outcome. A levels or T levels were to be the alternatives for sixth formers in school or college. But the sector liked the tripartite system of academic, vocational, and technical pathways, so as the years of consultations began, anger and disquiet often filled the educational airwaves.

At the heart of the angst lay a feeling that the most disadvantaged students would be the ones missing out, not able to get on the more academic T levels (and that were only available anyway in certain parts of the country). An increase in NEETs (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) was predicted by many, which contributed to a government compromise – new qualifications called Alternative Academic Qualifications (AAQs), or Alternative Technical Qualifications (ATQs) would be introduced from September 2025 in a limited range of subjects and a small amount of mixing and matching (‘combinations’) would be allowed. Proposals felt ill-thought through, messy, and complicated and, again, it was predicted to be the more disadvantaged students who would fall foul of the system. So would a new government do anything new?

What is the new position?

The new Labour government promised a “pause and review” and duly embarked on an autumn term “Rapid Review”. The sector held its breath. Would the defunding process be abandoned? Perhaps it would just be slowed down? Would new AAQs be put back in their box? Would T levels continue? And what about the confusing new combination rules that the previous government had talked about?

In the end it seems as if a sensible compromise was reached. The defunding of AGQs is to be slowed down with most popular qualifications to be allowed for at least one more year, many for two more; AAQs are to continue as planned (certainly for cycle one, that is, those starting this September 2025); and T levels are to continue much as before (albeit with ‘easier’ rules for satisfying the crucial industrial placements).

What subjects can now be combined?

Perhaps the review’s most important outcome though is that there are to be no rules regulating combinations of qualifications. It means that schools and colleges can now plan for this year’s intake of Year 12 students with confidence, using existing study programme rules. However, it does mean that there are more types of qualifications on offer than ever before. Straight A levels will remain, but we will also now see students mixing A levels with an AGQ and/ or a new single AAQ. T levels’ take-up will be influenced by how providers view the government’s longer-term position on them, as well as how the new rules on industrial placements impact.

What is imperative for providers though is that they design programmes that enhance progression opportunities for their students. So, for example, while a student would be ‘allowed’ the following combination: AAQ Human Biology; AAQ Medical Science; A level Biology, it would certainly limit a young person’s university chances. A common sense approach must prevail as usual. UCAS has already awarded AAQs the same tariff points as A levels, and universities will be briefed in the usual way by the awarding bodies on the new content and assessment regime in AAQs.

What will happen next?

It seems as if the next factor to influence sixth form education will be the findings of the Curriculum and Assessment Review (CAR) led by Professor Becky Francis. The interim report of the CAR, due out this spring, may contain hints as to what is in store, but it is more likely to be the full report later in the autumn that contains anything of substance. For now, schools and colleges can plan with certainty for this September and in broader terms for September 2026. A glass half-full perhaps.

Kevin Gilmartin
ASCL Post-16 and Colleges Specialist until his retirement at the end of February

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