Post-16 qualifications at level 2 and below

During the summer of 2022 the Department for Education held a consultation on post-16 qualifications at level 2 and below in England.

UCU has two main concerns with the consultation:

1. we are opposed to limiting choices for learners at level 2 and below, particularly where that reduction may foreseeably reduce opportunities for learners with learning disabilities and for ethnic minority learners to progress to higher learning and to contribute to the economy
2. we are concerned about the impact on providers/staff, specifically that they will need to spend time understanding the changes to the landscape, selecting new qualifications and learning the new curriculum content, which will be an additional burden for providers and their staff, yet without commensurate additional funding support to make those adjustments.