Further employer-backed ‘tech levels’ announced

RA Now

The government has announced more than 70 new qualifications that aim to put vocational education on a par with A-levels.

The 77 new ‘tech Levels’ are in subjects ranging from agriculture, engineering and IT, and have the backing of businesses including Siemens, BAE and Canon.

This takes the number of so-called “gold-standard” tech levels to more than 200, which over 16-year-olds can study from September this year.

Skills and enterprise minister Matthew Hancock said the qualifications aim to bridge the gap between education and employment, and remove the previous system, which had become “bloated with qualifications that were of no value”.

“Tech levels ensure young people are prepared to compete in the global jobs market, and give employers a crucial say in what skills they need,” he added. “Under this government, young people can clearly see which courses will give them the vital skills they need to get on in life.”

The qualifications have been introduced following the publication in 2011 of the Wolf Review into vocational education, which suggested that 300,000-400,000 16-19 year olds are doing courses of little value.
Describing the current system in her report, Professor Alison Wolf said: “We have many vocational qualifications that are great and institutions which are providing an excellent education and are heavily oversubscribed. But we also have hundreds of thousands of young people taking qualifications that have little or no value.”