Apprenticeships and skills minister Anne Milton has said she would advise her children to "leave it a year" before starting a new qualification like T levels.

The Department for Education minister was speaking to the Commons Education Select Committee as part of a hearing on accountability. 

The minister in charge of introducing T levels said she would encourage her children to wait before starting one, in response to a question from Labour MP Lucy Powell on the childcare T level, which is one of the first to be piloted from 2020.

Ms Powell asked why a parent would want their child to do a childcare T level when there was already a well-respected and industry-backed qualification in place. 

'Leave it a year'

Ms Milton responded: "The job of persuading parents to do any new qualification is always quite tough and we know that not huge numbers will do it in the first instance because... I mean, I’m a parent of four children. If somebody said to me, 'Your children could do this new qualification,' I’d say, ‘Leave it a year.'

“You know, instinctively, that is what parents will do. I think what we will need to do as a department, and the providers will need to do, is to make absolutely clear what you are getting in addition to any of the existing qualifications already set out."

In response, Labour MP James Frith said he found the minister’s comments “quite remarkable”, adding: “Why shouldn’t every other parent of the children considering what they do next also say, ‘Leave it [a year],’ when the minister in charge for launching this believes it is not right for your children and, in fact, they are not ready?”

Parents 'wary'

Ms Milton then said: “Can I just make sure that the record is correct. I did not say it will be a few years before we get it right. I did not say that. I probably made the mistake in using my own personal experience to emphasise the point that I think all parents are always wary of new qualifications.

“The point about T levels is that we’re introducing them, designed by employers – they are very rigorous. I know that take-up will be low in the first years. It probably was a mistake to use my own personal experiences, but I do know we need to do a very good job of making sure that parents, and the providers, will be part of doing this, and understand that these are a qualification like no other. It will take a while to persuade both young people and their parents that these are a cut above.”

In February, the prime minister said the notion that vocational education was for “other people’s children” needed to change when she launched the review of post-18 education at Derby College.

Theresa May urged people to “throw away [the] outdated attitude” that university is the only desirable route for young people and that vocational training “is something for other people’s children”.

Calls for delays

In May, education secretary Damian Hinds rejected a one-year delay to the implementation of T levels proposed by the DfE's permanent secretary. 

He said he was "convinced of the case to press ahead" with the original plans, which means the first T level subjects will start being taught in September 2020. 

This followed a letter to the education secretary from permanent secretary Jonathan Slater, in which he said the delivery of the T-level programme to the timetable set out was "ambitious".

"As things stand today, it will clearly be very challenging to ensure that the first three T levels are ready to be taught from 2020 and beyond to a consistently high standard," he wrote.

In February, Tes revealed that some leading universities had already decided not to accept T levels.

'Stunning'

There has been an outpouring of reaction to the minister's comments.

University and College Union general secretary Sally Hunt said: "When the minister in charge of T levels has said she wouldn’t want her own children taking one up in their first year, and the department’s permanent secretary has publicly called for their delay, it is probably time for the government to take stock.

"The government needs to ensure that quality is at the forefront of any new qualifications, even if that means taking longer to get them right. While it works on that, it needs to ensure proper funding is available to help colleges deliver high-quality education now and in the future."