Open consultation

Introduction

Published 5 November 2026

Applies to England

Ofqual introduced new Criteria for Recognition for V Levels, Foundation Certificates and Occupational Certificates in June 2026 (hereafter referred to as the reform criteria) following a consultation.

V Levels are level 3 broad, applied vocational qualifications aimed primarily at students who want to progress to higher study, higher technical training or apprenticeships.

Foundation Certificates are level 2 broad vocational qualifications intended to enable students to progress to study at level 3, and in particular to V Levels.

Occupational Certificates are level 2 qualifications intended to enable students to progress to employment in occupations covered by the qualifications.

Awarding organisations intending to offer the first tranche of V Levels, Foundation Certificates and Occupational Certificates were required to demonstrate they met the following criteria:

• Criterion A(V) Prior recognition
• Criterion B(V) Expertise
• Criterion C(V) Systems and processes
• Criterion D(V) Governance

The reform criteria were put in place for the following 3 main reasons:

1. These are intended to be high-quality, high-stakes national qualifications, which we anticipated would share features with other high-stakes national qualifications such as GCSEs and A Levels.
2. As the qualifications would be used for progression, including progression to higher education in the case of V Levels, we considered them to be high-stakes qualifications whose successful delivery required awarding organisations with specific capabilities. It was important that we were able to test awarding organisations’ experience and expertise to deliver the qualifications. This would usually be tested through consideration of capability against Qualification Level Conditions (QLCs) under the recognition criteria used for other qualifications. However, given the timing of first teaching for the first tranche of V Levels, Foundation Certificates and Occupational Certificates, QLCs would not be in place in time for the recognition process. As such, new criteria were needed to test the relevant capability.
3. Likewise, the timeline for introducing the qualifications meant that capability in this context necessitated awarding organisations to have either current experience or existing expertise in delivering all aspects of high-stakes qualifications.

The reform criteria set out the capacity, capability and governance that an awarding organisation would need to demonstrate to deliver these new high-stakes national qualifications. As well as this, and unlike the original Criteria for Recognition used for other qualifications, they required awarding organisations to already be recognised by Ofqual, and to have the necessary expertise, systems, processes and governance arrangements in place at the point of recognition.

Feedback to the June consultation was generally supportive of the approach taken, with respondents acknowledging that the timescales for introducing the new qualifications necessitated this approach. However, there was less support for using the reform criteria for the level 2 qualifications, given that it was expected there would be different assessment approaches and smaller cohorts for these qualifications. Another theme in the consultation feedback was concern about the impact on smaller or more specialist awarding organisations that may not be able to meet the reform criteria immediately. There was strong support for reviewing the approach after recognition for tranche 1 had been completed, when QLCs for V Levels, Foundation Certificates, and Occupational Certificates had been published.

Ofqual has now published QLCs (and for V Levels, Subject Level Conditions) and, although there are similarities, we now know our approaches to regulating these qualifications will differ from one another, most significantly between V Levels and the level 2 qualifications. In particular, while the QLCs allow us to set requirements for standard setting in each of the new qualifications, we anticipate a materially different approach to standard setting in V Levels compared to Foundation Certificates and Occupational Certificates.

This difference in approach to regulating the qualifications, as well as the feedback we received in response to the first consultation, has informed our review of the approach to recognition going forward. This consultation now sets out our proposals for the approach to recognition of V Levels, Foundation Certificates and Occupational Certificates for the second and future tranches.