Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 11
35th Report - Introducing T Levels
Published 27 Jun 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Introducing T Levels All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
We challenged the Department on the underrepresentation of women in engineering and manufacturing T Levels, which mirrored the current workforce, and what it could learn from others internationally. This included the Supporting Adolescent Girls’ Education programme in Zimbabwe, which supports out-of-school adolescent girls into education and vocational training through revising the school curriculum.23 Written evidence we received also highlighted the gender disparity; lower proportion of disadvantaged students in engineering and technology T Levels; and the restrictions on remote working creating a barrier for students with special educational needs (SEND) accessing T Levels.24 Students with SEND are less likely to enrol on a T Level than other vocational courses – in 2022/23 students who had been assessed as having SEND by age 15 made up 11% of T Level students, compared with 15% of level 3 vocational qualifications students.25 The Department told us it will continue to monitor disparities by socioeconomic status, race, gender and SEND breakdowns and consider what more it can do to address these within T Levels and other vocational technical qualifications.26 19 C&AG’s Report, para 14 20 Q 54 21 C&AG’s Report, paras 1.9 and 3.25 22 Qq 35-36 23 Qq 58-60 24 ITL0001, ITL0014 25 C&AG’s Report, para 2.6 26 Qq 56-60 10 Raising awareness amongst employers
From: Public Accounts Committee, 35th Report - Introducing T Levels (HC 822), 27 June 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty-fifth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 27 August 2025).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty-fifth report from Session 2024-26
Published 15 October 2025.
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty-sixth report from Session 2024-26
Published 15 October 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with each of the Committee's recommendations on T Levels and gives target implementation dates ranging from autumn 2025 to March 2026.
- On raising student awareness and enrolments, it agrees and says it will build on this through the continuing 'Skills for Life' campaign and by improving careers guidance. Its plan will be "fully implemented by September 2029".
- On industry placements, it agrees that it "can do more" to grow high-quality placements, and "will set out further plans by December 2025".
- On how T Levels fit with other qualifications, it says a post-16 education and skills strategy, to be published in autumn 2025, will set out "clearly where T Levels will sit alongside other funded qualifications and their purpose".
- On college funding pressures, it agrees and has introduced "an additional temporary 5% uplift" to the T Level funding rate for academic year 2025-26. It also says it will continue to work with providers to assess ongoing costs.