Guidance

16 to 19 high value courses premium for construction

Published 10 September 2025

Applies to England

1. Introduction

On 23 March 2025, the Chancellor announced £600 million worth of investment to train up to 60,000 more skilled construction workers.

This will deliver well paid jobs across the country in the construction sector and help build 1.5 million homes to transform communities by the end of this Parliament.

£165 million of new funding will be available to help institutions deliver more construction courses for all learners, with up to £35 million available in academic year 2026 to 2027 to support 16 to 19 funded students.

The aim is to provide programmes which make students employable in construction immediately after successfully completing their study programme or T Level.

2. Qualifications

High value courses premium (HVCP) for construction is additional funding to encourage and support delivery of selected substantial level 2 and level 3 study programmes and T Levels in sector subject area (SSA) 5.2 – Building and construction to support an increase in skilled construction workers.

In academic year 2026 to 2027 there will be 2 lists for qualifications that attract HVCP funding:

1. HVCP
2. HVCP for construction

We aim to publish both lists before the end of December 2025 and update this page. We will remove any construction qualifications in SSA 5.2 that attract HVCP from list 1 and add them to list 2. 

The qualifications attracting HVCP for construction must be approved for 16 to 19 funding during at least part of the relevant academic year and be:

• a level 2 or level 3 qualification with recommended guided learning hours (GLH) of 360 or more, or a T Level in SSA5.2
• on the HVCP for construction qualification list

3. Eligible students

Students eligible for full and part-time 16 to 19 funding can attract the premium.

To attract the funding, you will need to enrol students on either a level 2 or level 3 study programme with a core aim of a qualification in the HVCP for construction qualification list or a T Level in SSA5.2. We will base the student count on 16 to 19 funded students who took eligible construction qualifications in academic year 2024 to 2025 and meet all the eligibility requirements for us to pay funding in academic year 2026 to 2027.

Students that do not take T Levels must also complete:

• an external placement in a construction environment that meets the definition of an industry placement for construction, and
• a level 1 health and safety qualification on this list

Please support students to apply for a Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) card to show competency in a construction environment.

You can use your 16 to 19 funding allocation to cover the costs of the initial level 1 health and safety qualification assessment and the CSCS card. We will amend the Qualification funding approval guidance to permit the use of public funding for the cost of the CSCS card acquisition in relation to this funding.

We aim to provide details of the definition of an industry placement for construction early in 2026.

4. Funding rate

We will pay £1,000 for each eligible student. We will reconcile the funding against final data return for academic year 2026 to 2027, R14 for the individualised learner record (ILR) and autumn census for the school census.

5. Data recording

You must ensure your data recording is accurate for each student. To attract the full £1000 rate, each student must:

1. take a qualification on the HVCP for construction qualification list and
2. complete an industry placement for construction and
3. complete a level 1 health and safety qualification on the list

We aim to publish the lists of qualifications referred to in point 1 by the end of December 2025.

If the student is on a one-year programme, they will need to complete all 3 parts in that year for them to be compliant and attract the enhanced funding rate.

If a student is on a 2-year programme, to be able to secure the additional funding for each year of their programme they should undertake the Health and Safety qualification and the industry placement for construction in their first year. We’ll use your data to check if these were completed by the student. If all three parts are matched, we will class the student as compliant, and they will also attract the enhanced rate in their second year.

For the industry placement for construction, you must record whether each student has started and completed their placement to attract the funding. This will be the case regardless of whether they attract any additional industry placement funding.

We are developing guidance regarding the definition of a construction industry placement and will publish details in early 2026. It is important you record your data accurately as incorrect or incomplete data returns could result in us recovering funding.

6. Calculation

This is how we will calculate the HVCP for construction for academic year 2026 to 2027

Step 1 – Count the students eligible for HVCP for construction. We will use academic year 2024 to 2025 data to identify students taking construction qualifications on the HVCP for construction qualification list.            

Step 2 – Uplift the number in step 1 by 15% to account for the expected growth in academic year 2026 to 2027 due to demographic increases and the anticipated growth in SSA 5.2 level 2 and level 3 enrolments.

Step 3 - Calculate the amount of HVCP for construction per institution by multiplying the total number of students expected per institution by the funding rate.

7. Payment

We will pay HVCP for construction as part of your 16 to 19 allocation monthly payments from the start of academic year 2026 to 2027.

8. Reconciliation

We will class a student as non-compliant where the data record or our matching does not show all 3 elements in a year.  We will recover £400 where the substantial construction qualification is recorded but some or all of the other elements are not recorded.

We will recover £1,000 where there is no record of the substantial qualification. 

Check our section on data recording again to make sure you’re getting the right funding. We have explained that we will use your data to work out if a student is compliant or not. It’s particularly important for you to make sure that you record accurate data for students on a two-year programme.

We will reconcile the HVCP for construction funding allocated for 2026 to 2027 using end year data, adjusting allocations up or down to reflect the actual number of compliant students recorded on the school census or ILR.

Table 1: Explanation of the funding and recovery amounts based on what a student studies in the year

HVCP compliant construction qualification	Level 1 Health and Safety qualification	HVCP compliant construction industry placement	Recovery	Final funding value
yes	yes	yes	£0	£1,000.00
no	no	no	£1,000.00	£0
no	yes	yes	£1,000.00	£0
no	no	yes	£1,000.00	£0
no	yes	no	£1,000.00	£0
yes	yes	no	£400.00	£600.00
yes	no	yes	£400.00	£600.00
yes	no	no	£ 400.00	£600.00

9. Affordability

We may need to limit any growth above your calculated allocation figure to stay within the total available budget.  

We aim to move to lagged student numbers for academic year 2028 to 2029, subject to reviewing the impact this would have on growth.