Capital Support for T Level Providers – Academic Year 2026/27

In December 2025, we announced capital funding available for T Level providers introducing new T Level routes in: Agriculture & Animal Care, Construction, Creative & Design, Digital, Engineering & Manufacturing, and Health & Science.  

We are pleased to share more information on the grant that is available, including the purpose of the grant, eligibility and grant requirements.  

If eligible, you must sign and return your grant offer letter to us by midday on Wednesday 4^th March 2026 to receive a payment. This will be sent to Heads of Organisation. This is a one-year, one-time grant and is provided with new conditions. Please read all information in your grant offer and below carefully. 

Please be aware that the grants under the previous T Level Capital Fund (TLCF), including Specialist Equipment Allocation (SEA) and Buildings and Facilities Improvement Grants (BFIG) are now closed.  

This is the last time we will provide funding in this way to support with the introduction of new T Level routes. Information on future capital support for the scale up of technical qualifications through the Skills Mission Fund will be shared in due course.  

Grant Purpose

This grant is a one-off, one-time allocation which must be spent on specialist equipment for the delivery of T Levels, prioritising equipment that is detailed in the specifications for the T Levels you are delivering. This is to help you get set up to deliver T Levels, and you should consult the technical specification from the relevant awarding organisation when planning how to spend your grant.   

This grant is a contribution towards your specialist equipment costs, but we do not expect the allocation to cover 100% of these costs.   

We know that the quality of current equipment varies across providers. You must use the funding to purchase industry standard equipment. You are responsible for deciding what equipment to purchase. This must not be spent on consumable items. 

Further grants are unlikely to be available for the maintenance and replacement of this equipment, so you will need to ensure that your budget plans reflect the need to maintain sufficient equipment to teach T Levels in the long term.  

When spending your allocation, you should consider what equipment is required for both years of T Level delivery, noting the spending deadline of 31^st December 2026.

Eligibility

Providers who are eligible will be sent a grant offer letter in February 2026, which must be signed and returned to us by the date detailed in the letter.

This grant is to be allocated to providers delivering T Level routes for the first time in the 2026 to 2027 academic year to buy high-quality specialist equipment to deliver T Levels. This information is taken from your October 2025 T Level Data Collection (TLDC). Any changes to learner numbers or intent to deliver these routes can no longer be submitted to us.  

You must not have received Specialist Equipment Allocation (SEA) for the routes you are delivering for the first time in academic year 2026 to 2027, unless this has been fully reclaimed by us by 23^rd January 2026. If you have spent a small portion of the SEA allocation (less than 20%), and the reclaim for the remainder has processed by us by 23^rd January 2026, you will receive an adjusted allocation. If you vired funding from a previous SEA allocation to another route, this counts as spend.  

This is a formula grant, and there is no need to make an application for this funding. 

If you have any questions about your allocation, please email TLevel.CAPITALSUPPORT@education.gov.uk.  

Timetable for Receiving Payments

All providers who accept the conditions of the grant funding, and return their grant offer letter to us, will receive their allocation by the end of March 2026.  

Grant Requirements

Please ensure that you read the requirements in your grant offer letter and in the terms and conditions carefully.  

Examples of Eligible Equipment

Here follow some examples of the types of equipment providers have previously purchased using the specialist equipment allocation. 

These are illustrative examples. It is up to you to be satisfied that equipment can be shown as a capital asset within your internal accounting policies. 

Ineligible Spend

This funding is not to be spent on buildings or facilities, and is purely for the provision of industry standard specialist equipment. Please refer to your grant offer letter for more information.  

Reclaiming Funding 

In addition to reclaiming any funding spent on non-T Level equipment or any ineligible spend as detailed in your grant offer letter, we reserve the right to reclaim funding if: 

• your projected number of students decreases significantly 
• you do not begin delivery of a T Level route in September 2026 for which you received funding  
• you do not spend your allocation by 31st December 2026 
• you do not submit your monitoring form by 22nd January 2027 
• you move any amount of your allocation between routes 
• you spend your allocation on ineligible items that are not industry-relevant equipment used by your students as part of your teaching. If you are unsure if an item is eligible, check the eligible equipment section or email  TLevel.CAPITALSUPPORT@education.gov.uk to confirm 

If you have received this funding, we will use official independent learning record and census data in early 2027 to: 

• assess the actual student numbers against the number of students for whom providers have received funding 
• confirm you recruited onto these T Levels in the 2026 to 2027 academic year 

We will not provide additional funding if your student number projections increase, or if you decide to introduce additional routes. 

If you decide not to deliver the T Level routes for which you receive funding for, you must stop spending your allocation and contact us immediately. Funds spent in good faith may be retained if you can demonstrate equipment will be used to support post-16 teaching in the same curriculum area in academic year 2026-2027. This is at the discretion of the department and will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. 

Match Funding

We ask that you provide a funding contribution equal to 50% of the grant value. Match funding is not an absolute requirement, and we will leave you to decide whether you are able to afford this match funding.   

Match funding must not include other central government funding as part of this contribution. We will ask you for information on the amount and sources of money you have invested. 

Monitoring Returns

You will need to comply with the monitoring process for the fund as set out in Annex J of your grant offer letter. You must provide the information required by submitting the monitoring returns at the periods set out in Annex J of your grant offer letter that apply to your organisation following the stated process. 

All providers will be required to submit: 

• Monitoring Form: detailing all spend 
• Copies of itemised invoices for all spend 

The monitoring Form for you to complete is included below.