What are T-levels and what are the grades worth?

T-levels, introduced in 2020, are vocational qualifications aimed at 16-to-19-year-olds, external in England, which focus more on practical subjects than academic ones.

Each course lasts two years and is roughly equivalent to three A-levels.

The qualification includes a mixture of both classroom learning and on-the-job experience, with a work placement of at least 315 hours – or about nine weeks – making up roughly 20% of the course.

T-levels are designed to cater for students who want an alternative to A-levels but do not wish to take an apprenticeship, which usually requires as much as 80% of a student’s time to be spent with an employer.

Final grades are based on a combination of exams, coursework and completion of the industry placement.

For 2024, the overall pass rate for the 7,262 students who got their grades was 88.7%, a fall from 90.5% in 2023.

However, dropout rates remain high, with 71% of the 10,253 students starting in 2022 finishing their course after the two years.

That compares with retention rates which are consistently above 90% for most A-levels and applied general qualifications.