The impact of qualification reviews on funding approval
The impact on our approval principles and processes because of ongoing qualification reform.
The Department for Education (DfE) is implementing reforms to post-16 qualifications at level 3 and below in England. This review aims to streamline the number of qualifications approved for funding, and make sure that all qualifications are necessary, high quality, have a clear purpose, and support progression to successful outcomes. We have published a high-level overview of the reforms, including a high-level overview of the post 2025 qualifications landscape.
The single access point contains links to all relevant information on the post-16 qualification reforms and the process for submitting qualifications for approval for delivery from 1 August 2025. In addition, the qualifications funding approval manual: 2025 to 2026 describes how and when we will approve alternative academic and technical qualifications at level 3 and technical qualifications at level 2 for delivery from 1 August 2025.
Following our consultation on the review of post-16 qualifications at level 2 and below, we removed funding approval for functional skills qualifications in information and communication technology (ICT) at level 2 from 1 August 2022.
We will remove funding approval from functional skills qualifications in ICT at entry level and level 1 from 1 August 2023. This is because new digital functional skills qualifications at entry levels and level 1 will be available for 2023 to 2024, and these will be part of the digital entitlement for post-19 learners
Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs) at level 4 and 5 are approved by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) against approved occupational standards and allow learners to enter their chosen profession or progress onto higher education. Read an overview of HTQs, IfATE’s information on HTQs and the list of approved HTQs.
From August 2023, we will identify HTQs at level 4 and 5 which are available in advanced learner loans in our list of qualifications approved for funding. We will automatically approve HTQs for advanced learner loans where they meet loans criteria and have already been approved by IfATE.
From 2023 to 2024, approved HTQs can be designated for higher education student finance funding where they meet the necessary eligibility criteria. Some Ofqual regulated qualifications that do not meet the higher education student finance funding criteria will be approved and available through advanced learner loans only.
For a transitional period only (2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025) ahead of the introduction of the lifelong loan entitlement (LLE) in 2025 to 2026, certain HTQs that meet higher education student finance criteria may also be approved and available through advanced learner loans. Where an HTQ is eligible for funding through higher education student finance and advanced learner loans, and the provider delivering the qualification already holds Office for Students registration and has a contract with the ESFA for advanced learner loans delivery, the provider must determine which funding route will apply for their HTQ course. Only one funding route can be selected. Advanced learner loans and higher education student finance may not be mixed for an individual HTQ course within a single provider.
IfATE offers:
- further information on dual eligibility in IfATE’s information on HTQs
- a list of approved HTQs in:
- cycle 1 for delivery from 1 September 2022
- cycle 2 for delivery from September 2023
In March 2023, we published our response to the consultation on the LLE. The LLE will be introduced from 2025, providing individuals with a loan entitlement to the equivalent of four years of post-18 education to use over their working lives to train, retrain and upskill. It will be available for full years of study at higher technical and degree levels, as well as, for the first time, modules of high-value courses, regardless of whether they are provided in colleges or universities.
From the 2025 to 2026 academic year, the LLE will fund a wide range of courses, including all full courses formerly funded by higher education student finance, as well as some qualifications previously funded through advanced learner loans. However, not all qualifications approved for advanced learner loans will transition to the LLE.
To ensure that high value provision is funded through the LLE, the following transitional arrangements will be implemented for advanced learner loans qualifications to be in scope for LLE funding.
Qualifications which have been approved for advanced learner loans funding at levels 4 to 6 for a period of 3 consecutive years (from 1 August 2020) will be reviewed for demand. This review will take place during December 2023 and the outcomes confirmed in January 2024. Where there is no evidence of learner demand, the qualification will be taken out of scope for transfer to the LLE. We will communicate with awarding organisations about this demand review in the autumn.
For qualifications which remain in scope to transition to LLE, and for any new qualification approved between January and April 2024, there will be 2 additional requirements:
- the qualification’s purpose and outcome statements must support student progression into employment and higher education and training
- there is clear employer endorsement for the qualification
Where the qualifications are technical in nature, we will work with IfATE to draw on their existing processes for approval and keep these under review.
Beyond these requirements:
- from January 2024, awarding organisations submitting new qualifications for advanced learner loans approval will need to meet these new criteria - the process for doing this is detailed in Step 2 of How to transfer qualifications funded in Advanced Learner Loans
- awarding organisations with qualifications already approved for loans and in scope for transition to the LLE will need to evidence that their existing advanced learner loans approved qualifications meet these new criteria by 31 March 2024 - the process for doing this is detailed in Step 3 of How to transfer qualifications funded in Advanced Learner Loans
- from 1 April 2024 there will be a moratorium on any new qualifications coming forward for advanced learner loans at levels 4 to 6, so that the offer remains stable in advance of the transition to the LLE
We will communicate more details on how the post-moratorium gateway for new qualifications will operate by January 2024. Where new qualifications are technical in nature, our expectation is that IfATE will run an approvals process to ensure alignment with employer need and demand.
From 1 September 2020, we stopped routinely approving certain new regulated qualifications at level 3 and below for funding approval, for students aged 16 and over (including 19 plus). We do however continue to approve some new qualifications for funding where they meet exemption criteria. By ‘new qualification’, we mean a qualification with a new qualification number on Ofqual’s Register of Regulated Qualifications.
For the rest of this manual, we will refer to this as the ‘moratorium’. We will continue to approve qualifications at level 3 and below for funding in the 14 to 16 offer and the moratorium does not apply to T Levels.
This moratorium is separate from the moratorium on new technical or applied qualifications being added to the 16 to 18 performance tables and new qualifications entering the advanced learner loans offer, but will run alongside them.
Following the publication of the government’s response to the second stage consultation of the review of post-16 qualifications at level 3, we have confirmed additional types of qualifications which are exempt from the moratorium:
- International Baccalaureate Diploma
- core maths qualifications
- Extended Project qualifications
- Advanced Extension Awards
- Performing Arts Graded Examinations
- Higher Project Qualifications
- English and maths functional skills qualifications
We introduced the moratorium in 2020 for an initial period of 3 years, subject to annual review. Although the timeline for implementing the level 3 qualification reforms has been extended, we do not intend to remove the moratorium.
We have changed some parts of the moratorium to reflect that:
- qualifications which overlap with wave 1 and 2 T Levels will have funding approval removed for 16 to 19 only from 1 August 2024
- qualifications which overlap with wave 3 T Levels, and the wave 4 T Levels rolled out during 2023 and 2024, will have funding approval removed for 16 to 19 only from 1 August 2025
- qualifications at certain levels and in certain sector subject areas are being reviewed as part of the 2025 to 2026 qualifications approval process
We have already added qualifications in the 16 to 18 performance tables for 2025 to our qualifications offers for 2023 to 2024, including the loans offer. Due to the current moratorium on these performance tables qualifications, we have not added any more Technical Certificates, Tech Levels or Applied General qualifications to the offers in 2023 to 2024.
We will review the 16 to 18 performance tables for 2025, to make sure that our funded qualification offers for 2024 to 2025 reflect them. We will remove qualifications from our offers if you have asked us to withdraw them from the performance tables or if you make a change to the qualification which means it is no longer eligible to be approved. For example, applying an earlier operational end date to the qualification.
We have added qualifications confirmed for 2024 key stage 4 performance tables (new Technical Awards) to the 14 to 16 offer for 2023 to 2024.