The new government has paused聽reforms to post-16 qualifications聽at level 3 and below, halting the planned defunding of some BTECs and other alternatives to T-levels. Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, Today, she told the House of Commons she was “pleased to announce that the department will undertake a short pause and review of post 16 qualification reform at level 3 and below, concluding before the end of the year”. “This means that the will be paused.” She added that the coming year “will also see further developments in the rollout of new T-levels, which will ensure that young people continue to benefit from high quality technical qualifications that help them to thrive”. “And I will update the house shortly with more detail tomorrow.” The news follows growing concern over whether Labour would follow through with its pledge, which was not mentioned in its manifesto or after the party鈥檚 election victory. Former prime minister Gordon Brown and T-levels architect Lord David Sainsbury waded into the debate last week to publicly urge Phillipson to 鈥渋gnore鈥� calls from those with 鈥渧ested interests鈥� to pause the reforms. But others, such as former education secretary Lord Blunkett, who backed the Protect Student Choice campaign, warned that cutting courses would lead to the 鈥渃ollapse鈥� of a pipeline of trainees to key sectors such as health and social care. Courses were due to be slashed next week Under the plans, the DfE was to defund 134 qualifications whose content 鈥渙verlaps鈥� with the first 10 T-levels introduced in 2020 and 2021 from August 1, 2024. A further 85 qualifications that compete with the six T-levels introduced in 2022 were then set for the chop in August 2025, while another 71 courses that clashed with five more T-levels introduced over the past two years were also going to be defunded from 2025. On top of this, a new DfE approvals process for retaining funding for other level 3 alternatives would have excluded other popular courses in health and social care, engineering, science and law. Analysis by the Sixth Form Colleges Association, which secured Labour鈥檚 promise of a pause and review, had warned that at least 155,000 young people would be left without a suitable post-16 course from 2026 as a result of the government鈥檚 plans. Pepe Di鈥橧asio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed today鈥檚 announcement but urged Phillipson to pause the reforms until 2027. 鈥淲hile the confirmation that the review will be concluded by the end of the year is very encouraging, there is not yet detail on how long the pause will be in place. 鈥淪chool and college leaders, and their students, need certainty about the courses that can be run for the next two years. We therefore urge the government to extend the pause until 2027 for all of the current applied general qualifications.鈥�