T-Levels

Rating: Overall delivery confidence for 2025/26 is Amber. The programme continues to perform strongly on quality, with positive trends in participation, retention, attainment and industry placements, and independent assurance confirms clear benefits for learners and employers. Confidence has improved over the year through stable recruitment in line with forecasts, high completion of industry placements and continued ministerial support, including targeted funding to sustain delivery. The Amber rating reflects ongoing and largely structural challenges in scaling the programme to its agreed steady‑state ambition rather than a decline in performance. Key pressures include the pace required to grow participation, uneven provider and employer capacity to expand placements, and the planned introduction of a new V Level route, all of which could constrain growth despite strong outcomes. Our pathway to Green includes: steps taken to ensure T Levels are accessible by a wider range of students through updates to our delivery framework to improve the quality and availability of industry placements; making improvements to T Levels by streamlining content and reducing assessment to improve deliverability; and setting out the purpose and intent for T Levels alongside V Levels in the response to the Post-16 Level 3 and Below Pathways consultation. This will support the programme in maintaining incremental growth following the initial period of intense scale-up and ensuring T Levels remain an attractive option for students and providers.

Schedule: The programme’s planned end date remains 01/09/2028. The programme remains on track to have delivered at least two cohorts on each of the T Levels introduced in scope of this programme by this date. All large (1080+) legacy qualifications in existing T Level areas (with the exception of Health and Social Care) will be defunded in 2027. At that point, T Levels will be the only large (1080+) qualification available for those subjects. Steady State, the point at which we expect student numbers to peak and level, changing only in response to demographic shifts, is expected to be academic year 29/30.

Cost: Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the programme’s departmentally agreed Whole Life Cost (measured in £m) increase from £1,653m to £1,856m. This reflects the 25/26 budget being agreed and added to the WLC.

Source: NISTA Major Projects Annual Report 2025-26 (data)

Rating: Compared to financial year 23/24-Q4, the Infrastructure Project Authority's Delivery Confidence Assessment rating at 24/25-Q4 remained at AMBER. This is primarily due to the following factors‚ A NISTA Gate 0 review in June 2025 gave an Amber rating. The programme has been supporting growth of learners, subjects and providers, and T Levels have subsequently seen a 59% increase in student starts in September 2024 to over 25,000 learners. 92% of completers in the first two cohorts (who started their T Level in 2020 and 2021) are in employment or further study, and early evidence suggests that T Level learners who go directly into work, are more likely to remain in the same field than their counterparts on other large Level 3 qualifications. The programme continues to value and respond to feedback from employers, providers and students. In response to the March 2024 NISTA (formerly IPA) review, the department has: • Worked with employers and students to review and implement updated approaches to deliver industry placements and supported employer engagement in a range of priority sectors • Undertaken activity to support increasing awareness for students, teachers and parents • Made changes to reduce duplication in content & assessment in reprocured T Level contracts

Schedule: Compared to financial year 23/24-Q4, the project's end-date at 24/25-Q4 increased from 30/09/2023 to 01/09/2028. This is primarily due to the following factors‚ Following the review of Qualifications Reform which concluded in December 2024, the defunding of large qualifications that overlap with T Levels will now be phased between August 2025 and August 2027. The last planned T Level in Marketing will be introduced in September 2025. The revised project end date reflects these key milestones. The programme continues to prioritise activity to support the scale up of students and providers, the programme is focussing on ensuring that it gathers feedback from providers and awarding organisations, with the aim of surfacing and resolving individual T Level issues and ensuring readiness for steady state delivery.

Cost: Compared to financial year 23/24-Q4, the project's departmentally agreed Whole Life Cost at 24/25-Q4 (measured in £m) remained at 1653. This is primarily due to the following factors‚ This is unchanged from last year.

Source: NISTA Annual Report 2024-25 (data)

Rating: Compared to financial year 22/23-Q4, the Infrastructure Project Authority's Delivery Confidence Assessment rating at 23/24-Q4 decreased from Red to Amber. This is primarily due to the following factors. The current Infrastructure Project Authority's Delivery Confidence Assessment rating for the T Level Programme is amber following a Gate 0 review in Mar 24. T While the review team was impressed with the leadership and management of the T Levels programme, they noted that challenges remain in terms of scaling up the programme. To address these challenges, the programme team was advised to review and revise its approach to supporting the growing number and variety of providers and continue to focus on increasing employer awareness and engagement with T Levels. The programme team has engaged stakeholders to review these recommendations and to develop a comprehensive action plan to address them.

Schedule: Compared to financial year 22/23-Q4, the project's end-date at 23/24-Q4 remained schedule to finish on 2023-09-30. This is primarily due to the following factors. The change in date from 30 September 2023 to 01 September 2028 is a result of the updated Business Case (December 2023). The change reflects when the programme will move to business as usual, once all planned T Levels have been delivered to at least one cohort of students.

Cost: Compared to financial year 22/23-Q4, the project's departmental-agree Whole Life Cost at 23/24-Q4 decreased from 1754m. to 1653m. This is primarily due to the following factors. This is primarily due to rebaselining the costs in line with the new programme business case.

Source: IPA Annual Report 2023-24 (data)