On Monday 28 February 2022, the Government answered a Written Question on the impact of removing funding for BTECs for young people wishing to pursue a career in the video games industry. The question was asked by Justin Tomlinson, Conservative MP for North Swindon. In its response, the Government indicated it planned to continue to fund some applied general type qualifications, including BTECs.
See the full answer below.
BTEC Qualifications: Finance
Question to the Department for Education
28 February 2022
Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of concerns highlighted by The Independent Game Developers’ Association on the impact of removing funding for BTECs for young people on people wishing to pursue a career in the video games industry.
Alex Burghart – Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education): In July 2021 the department published the response to the second stage consultation in its review of post-16 qualifications at level 3 which can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reforms-to-post-16-qualifications-at-level-3-in-england.
The consultation outlines the types of qualifications that we plan to fund in the future.
This will include some applied general type qualifications, for example BTECs, as part of mixed programmes alongside A levels where there is a need and they meet quality and other criteria. We will also fund high-quality alternative qualifications as a whole study programme in areas not well served by A levels and where they do not overlap with a T Level.
The department has made no decisions on the individual qualifications. We will shortly publish a provisional list of qualifications that will have public funding approval withdrawn as they duplicate the content and purpose of wave one and two T Levels. Qualifications that do not overlap with T Levels will be replaced by high quality reformed technical qualifications in future.
The updated impact assessment published alongside the response to the second stage consultation can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-post-16-qualifications-at-level-3-in-england. The assessment looked at the potential impact of the review on students, but it did not look specifically at those looking to pursue a career in the video games industry.