GovWire

We will only consider approving T Level foundation qualifications in the following routes:

• agriculture, environmental and animal care
• business and administration
• creative and design
• construction and the built environment
• digital
• education and early years
• engineering and manufacturing
• health and science
• legal, finance and accounting
• sales, marketing and procurement

We have removed 2 routes from the cycle 2 approvals process for T Level foundation qualifications:

• the hair and beauty route - there will no longer be a combined hairdressing, barbering and beauty T Level, and the government is exploring a T Level focused on the beauty sector
• the catering and hospitality route - the catering T Level is delayed to beyond 2024 to ensure it meets the needs of the sector

Once this work is completed, we will review its implications for T Level foundation qualifications in each of these routes.

We will not approve more than one T Level foundation qualification for the same route from the same awarding organisation, because they would need to cover the same content to meet the requirements for funding approval.

Criterion 3 covers the content requirements for T Level foundation qualifications.

The qualification must have an appropriate sector subject area (SSA) classification, based on its content. The SSA must be within your scope of recognition.

We expect the SSAs for T Level foundation qualifications to align with the SSA classifications for T Level technical qualifications in that route, because their content will align with T Levels in the same route.

T Level technical qualifications that are already available can be found on Ofquals register of regulated qualifications.

We expect the below SSAs to be used for T Level foundation qualifications, based on their content and the T Level technical qualification SSAs, where available.

We have removed the relevant SSAs for the hair and beauty and the catering and hospitality routes.

Where we have indicated two relevant SSAs for a route, your scope of recognition must include both SSAs. However, you will need to choose the most reasonable SSA to classify your qualification, based on the proportionate match between its content and the SSAs.

You should check your scope of recognition before submitting qualifications for funding approval and, if necessary, apply to Ofqual to expand your scope of recognition before submitting a qualification for funding approval.

We will only consider approving T Level foundation qualifications where their content is based on the national technical outcomes for the T Level foundation year. The content of the qualification will be assessed against the criteria below.

The qualification must be based on the national technical outcomes for one route only.

The qualification must include all the outcomes, knowledge and skills specified in the national technical outcomes for the route, including all the options specified for that route, where applicable. Where the national technical outcomes include options, all these options must be available to students taking the qualification:

• in the agriculture, environmental and animal care and the health and science routes, students can choose to take outcome A or outcome B
• in the construction and the built environment and the creative and design routes, students can choose to cover different content to meet a particular outcome

The qualification may cover the specified knowledge and skills in more detail than is set out in the national technical outcomes:

• the detailed content must be relevant to demonstrating the associated outcome
• you may use the illustrative examples of breadth and depth, provided as supplementary information in the national technical outcomes, but this is not expected or required

The qualification may include additional knowledge or skills beyond those specified in the national technical outcomes, only if:

• the overall extent of additional content is minimal, given the size guidelines in criterion 6
• it is relevant to demonstrating one or more outcomes
• there is a clear rationale for
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