Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 14
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)
Colleges play a key role coordinating and securing industry placements for T Level students. They will need to find more placements as student numbers increase, ensuring employers can offer placements but also that they have the capacity to source and oversee placements.35 The Department said it offers colleges £550 per student to help them arrange a placement.36 27 C&AG’s Report, paras 2, 3.2 28 Q 26 29 ITL0014 30 Q 20 31 C&AG’s Report, paras 15, 1.4, 2.5 32 Qq 6-7, 26-27; C&AG’s Report, para 7 33 Qq 49-50 34 ITL0003, ITL0005, ITL0008 35 C&AG’s Report, para 3.21 36 Q 11 11 In 2024, the Department found colleges were facing particular challenges finding placements across their health, engineering, construction and digital T Levels.37 The written evidence we received from the Education and Training Foundation raised further concerns across the legal, finance, and creative industries.38 Evidence from the Association of Colleges noted challenges across different areas, with poor transport links in rural communities making students’ travel to placements difficult or expensive.39
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.