T Levels update - Occupational Specialisms and Funding - September 2025

Updates to Occupational Specialisms (OSs)

As part of our work to support T Level deliverability and scale up, we have been reviewing the range of occupational specialisms (OSs) covered by each T Level to ensure that they are the right fit and continue to equip students with the skills and knowledge needed to progress, and that they continue to meet the needs of industry.   

As part of new T Level delivery contracts, awarding organisations have been developing new occupational specialisms in the Construction route:  

Rolling out from September 2025: Project Delivery for Construction and the Built Environment (Design, Surveying and Planning)  

• Pearson has been working closely with providers who were keen to see a new Occupational Specialism in Project Delivery. This new OS available from this September covers the planning, monitoring and administration side of project management, and will support progression into a variety of project management roles. More information can be found here.

To be rolled out from September 2026: Low Carbon Heating Engineering (Building Services Engineering) 

• As flagged in the July Provider newsletter, Eduqas/EAL are currently developing a new OS in Low Carbon Heating Engineering. Whether you’re a provider already working with low carbon technologies or just starting to explore them, Eduqas/EAL would love your feedback as they finalise development of this exciting new OS: Low Carbon Heating Engineering - Provider Survey. 

Following our latest review (alongside our ongoing re-procurement of new awarding organisation delivery contracts), we will be removing the following occupational specialisms. 

Progression into these occupations will continue to be supported by other existing T Level OSs and/or apprenticeships. These changes will help to support our work to address the breadth and manageability of T Level content and assessment, particularly around the streamlining of the Core. 

T Level in Health  

• Dental Nursing - No further enrolments after the 2025/26 cohort. 

T Level in Design and Development for Engineering and Manufacturing 

• Control and Instrumentation - No further enrolments after the 2026/7 cohort. 
• Structural Engineering - No further enrolments after the 2026/7 cohort.  

T Level in Maintenance, Installation & Repair for Engineering and Manufacturing 

• Control and Instrumentation - No further enrolments after the 2026/7 cohort. 

T Level in Manufacturing, Processing & Control for Engineering and Manufacturing 

• Composites Manufacturing Technology – No further enrolment after September the 2026/7 cohort.  

If you are currently delivering any of the above occupational specialisms and require any advice on delivering alternatives, please contact TLevel.DELIVERY@education.gov.uk  

T Level Funding Update 

When T Levels were first introduced in academic year 2020/21, we were unable to apply the full 16–19 lagged methodology, as there was no prior year data available. Instead, we relied on institutions’ own estimates submitted via the T Level Data Collection form.

Because initial funding was based on estimated rather than lagged student numbers, we carried out an in-year reconciliation once official data became available.

Since academic year 2023/24, we’ve been able to use prior year data to identify continuing students. As a result, initial T Level funding allocations now combine estimated student numbers for new starts (provided by institutions), and lagged student numbers for continuing students, based on ILR and school census data from the previous year.

We have updated the T Levels funding guide 2025 to 2026 to confirm that, from academic year 2027/28, initial allocations will be based entirely on lagged T Level student numbers from the previous year—regardless of whether T Level students are in their first or second year of study.

We recognise that some institutions will begin delivering T Levels in future years, while others continue to expand their provision. To support this, we will maintain an in-year reconciliation process to account for over- or under-delivery.

This means that institutions will no longer be required to complete the T Level data collection after 2025. 

We will keep the funding approach under review and we will communicate further details at a later date.