Since T-levels were introduced in 2020 as new technical qualifications for 16 to 19-year-olds, they have rarely been out of the spotlight.

In the last two years alone we have had major reports on T-levels from the Education Select Committee in Parliament, Ofsted and the National Audit Office – none of which painted a particularly rosy picture of how these qualifications have fared so far. 

The latest in this long line of inquiries came on the 27th of June, when the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament, which monitors government spending, published its verdict on how T-levels have been designed and implemented.

So what concerns did the Public Accounts Committee raise about T-levels? Why has this new brand of qualifications struggled to deliver the ambitions set out for them when they were launched five years ago? And are things likely to get better or worse for T-levels over the rest of this Parliament? 

My guests are Robert Halfon, the MP for Harlow from 2010 to 2024 who was twice Minister for Skills and Apprenticeships at the Department for Education, and Sorah Gluck, a Senior Policy Advisor at the Edge Foundation.

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