Milton: Qualifications must ‘have currency’ in the job market

Consultation is no reflection of quality, but now is ‘a good time’ to review post-16 courses, says skills minister Anne Milton
19th March 2019, 2:50pm

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Milton: Qualifications must ‘have currency’ in the job market

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/milton-qualifications-must-have-currency-job-market
Level 3 Btec Cambridge International Fe College

A consultation into qualifications at level 3 and below is not motivated by a feeling that qualifications like BTECs and Cambridge Technicals are of insufficient quality, skills minister Anne Milton has said. 

Speaking to Tes, she said: "All qualifications are up for grabs, it is a good time to do this. In terms of classroom-based, we want A levels and T levels, and the work-based option is apprenticeships." 

However, she acknowledged that, with the broad range of learners taking part in post-16 education, including students with additional support needs, there was a need for additional qualifications. "We will be mindful that there needs to be a suite of qualifications," Ms Milton said. 


Read more: 'Don't let applied generals fall by the wayside'

Background: Will T levels draw a line in the sand under BTECs?

Long read: Applied Generals in a battle to survive


The government earlier today announced plans to review which post-16 qualifications will, in future, be funded for young people in colleges and sixth-forms. It launched a two-part consultation on qualifications at level 3 and below.

In the first stage of the consultation, the Department for Education will ask key stakeholders for their thoughts on only providing public funding for qualifications that meet key criteria on “quality, purpose, necessity and progression” and then not providing public funding for qualifications for 16- to 19-year-olds that overlap with T levels or A levels.

"We listened to both the Wolf review in 2011 and the Sainsbury review," Ms Milton said, stressing that any qualifications available to young people needed to "have currency" in the job market. "They need to be easy to understand by employers and they need to give students who gain them currency. They also need to have progression."

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