Future Ready: Post-16 Science
November 25, 2024
Written by David Rowley, Product Manager at NCFE.
As featured in VITTA Education‘s Summer Term 2024 issue of VITTA Magazine.
From 2025, and in a series of staggered cycles up to 2028, all post-16 qualifications at level 3 and below will be reformed and must meet new criteria to be approved for funding. All other qualifications will have funding approval withdrawn.
The impetus behind the post-16 reforms was the 2011 Wolf Report, which identified that many vocational qualifications were not valued by employers, offering both poor employment prospects and progression routes to higher education. This was followed by the 2016 Sainsbury Review, which set out a plan for educational reform and crucially, advocated for a clear delineation between ‘academic’ and ‘technical’ education, and disposing of the previously nebulous term ‘vocational’.
The intention of the new, reformed system will be to provide learners with high quality choices which will provide the best foundation from which to progress, either into higher education, or skilled employment. It is from these two progression outcomes that the terms ‘academic’ and ‘technical’ derive their core meaning.
- Academic education: Courses whose primary purpose is the progression to higher education. Qualifications making up these programmes are likely to be ‘knowledge-rich’
- Technical education: Courses whose primary purpose is progression to skilled employment or further technical training. There are two branches of technical education: apprenticeships, which are mainly workplace-based, and technical qualifications, which are mainly classroom-based. Both programmes are built around knowledge, skills and behaviours.
How will this affect Level 3 Science academic curricula?
In the realm of academic education, A levels will remain unchanged, so learners will still have a choice between Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Environmental Science. The new addition to this space will be Alternative Academic Qualifications (AAQs). Despite the moniker ‘new’, these are in fact very similar to legacy applied general qualifications.
These are small (meaning the size of 1 A level) qualifications that must be taken in a mixed programme with A levels, and funding rules will stipulate that learners must pair one AAQ with two A Levels. They will also have a minimum of 60% mandatory content and 40% external assessment by exam. Science AAQs have gone through approval and will be open for delivery from September 2025.
Approved AAQs:
| Awarding Organisation | Subjects |
| Pearson | Applied Science Medical Science |
| International Baccalaureate Organisation | Biology Chemistry Physics Sports, Exercise and Health Science |
| WJEC-CBAC | Medical Science |
| OCR | Applied Science Human Biology |
The fact that a much higher proportion of the assessment will be coursework in AAQs gives them a more vocational flavour, and perhaps caters to a different kind of learner. AAQs should augment and enhance the academic landscape and will likely see widespread usage in schools and sixth form colleges, allowing them to create a more well-rounded offer for students.
The new Level 3 technical landscape
General FE colleges will be seeking a different solution, however, as many do not offer A levels and therefore, will find little use in AAQs. For these settings, technical programmes are more appropriate.
The Sainsbury Review proposed a new classification system of 15 occupational routes, containing over 220 occupational standards at Level 3 (and many more from Levels 2 to 7). The ‘Health and Science’ route contains 4 pathways:
- Health
- Healthcare science
- Science
- Community exercise, physical activity, sport and health
Each occupational standard has knowledge, skills and behaviours, and it is on these that both apprenticeships and technical qualifications are built. In Science, the technical qualification that will see use is the ‘T Level’.
T Levels are two-year qualifications designed to prepare learners for employment in industry through a mix of:
- technical knowledge and skills
- an industry placement of at least 45 days
- relevant maths, English, and digital skills
Launching in September 2021, NCFE spearheaded the development of the Health, Healthcare Science, and Science T levels, working with over 133 leading health and science sector bodies, employers, expert practitioners and training providers.
The Science T Level has a core component of knowledge and skills giving a broad look into the health and science sector, along with an occupational specialism, where learners choose one of three pathways:
- Laboratory Sciences
- Food Sciences
- Metrology Sciences
Before the Science T Level, there was no obvious route for non-degree learners to enter the industry. The aforementioned three pathways have a multitude of technician roles, but A levels did not provide the workplace skills required to move into them straight from further education.
Where to find more information
Whilst A Levels and AAQs will feel familiar to many educators, T Levels feel like an intimidating step, particularly for schools. Nevertheless, in the health and science sector they are an extremely important addition to the landscape, and we would encourage everyone to investigate them further.
NCFE have a plethora of information about T Levels and the reforms in general on our webpage and YouTube channel. Visit https://www.ncfe.org.uk/technical-education/t-levels/health-and-science/ to find out more.