I thank all noble Lords for their powerful contributions on this group and I will attempt to set out again our measures in relation to technical educational qualifications. I underline that our ambition with these changes is for a technical education system that is directly rooted in the needs of the workplace. Our reforms will raise the quality of technical qualifications and give young people and adults the skills they need to progress into skilled employment.
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Assertions were made repeatedly during the debate that the Government are scrapping all BTECs. With the greatest respect to your Lordships, that is simply not correct. We will fund level 3 BTECs and/or other applied general qualifications or similar qualifications where there is a clear need for skills and knowledge that T-levels and A-levels cannot provide, but any qualification that is funded needs to meet quality criteria, which I am sure your Lordships would agree with, to be approved for funding. More broadly, level 2 BTECs are not part of this legislation and will be consulted on later this year. It is important to set that point straight.
The amendments tabled by my noble friends Lord Lucas and Lord Baker seek to ensure that the institute’s activities will allow for mixed academic and technical programmes and, through my noble friend Lord Baker’s amendment, other large programmes that are not T-levels or A-levels. Our reforms will make sure that every qualification—