Ministers have scrapped plans to introduce T-levels in hairdressing and barbering after two years of development 鈥� with proposals for a beauty therapy qualification pushed back to at least 2025. The courses were originally due to be taught from September 2023 but were delayed to September 2024 after education secretary Gillian Keegan flagged quality concerns, saying at the time awarding organisations had 鈥渕ore work to do鈥� to meet 鈥渢he high-quality bar required鈥�. Awarding organisation NCFE was contracted to develop the hairdressing, barbering and beauty therapy T-levels in partnership with VTCT. They began developing the qualification in October 2021. It has now emerged that the hair and barbering qualifications have been scrapped altogether. Kevin Gilmartin, post-16 specialist at the ASCL leaders鈥� union, said today鈥檚 announcements will leave many schools and colleges 鈥渋n limbo who have spent time and money getting ready for teaching these qualifications this year, and will have offered places to students as a result鈥�. 鈥淭his will mean considerable disruption and disappointment for many. It begs the question as to why there is such a rush to dispense with so many BTECs and similar qualifications before T-levels have been properly embedded. 鈥淭he government should suspend the defunding process so that the rushed rollout of T-levels doesn鈥檛 leave thousands of students without a viable post-16 pathway.鈥� DfE ‘exploring’ standalone beauty T-level Skills minister Robert Halfon said today the government now believes the best routes for students in the hairdressing and barbering sector are existing level 2 and 3 apprenticeships and level 2 classroom qualifications. The government is 鈥渆xploring鈥� a standalone T-level in beauty and aesthetics that could be introduced 鈥渁fter 2025鈥� as the industry wants a 鈥済ood quality level 3 classroom-based progression route鈥�. However, in Halfon鈥檚 statement to parliament today, he said this 鈥渄iffers from feedback we have had from representatives in the hair sector鈥� who have said they prefer existing apprenticeships and qualifications. Schools Week understands the two awarding organisations, NCFE and VTCT, will now conduct a scoping exercise with the beauty sector to test whether a standalone T-level is viable. It comes as the Department for Education published a provisional list of 71 qualifications at risk of losing their funding because they overlap with wave four T-levels. Wave four includes qualifications in agriculture, land management and production; animal care and management; craft and design; legal services and media broadcast and production. Halfon said: 鈥淲e remain fully committed to the roll out of T-levels, which will form the backbone of the prime minister鈥檚 ambitious and help us build a skills and apprenticeship nation.鈥� Meanwhile, the government has published a third provisional list of qualifications that face the axe to pave the way for T-levels. The further .