The government says its post-16 plans are landmark reforms to help young people secure well-paid jobs, following the number of young people not in education, work or training rising to almost one million.
The first V-levels – the new vocational qualifications – from 2027 will be in education and early years, finance and accounting, and digital, the government has said.
Learning will be designed around real jobs and the skills employers actually need, to help young people secure well-paid jobs, it adds.
V-levels will sit alongside A-levels and T-levels, and be equivalent to one A-level, allowing students to mix and match academic and vocational subjects if they want to.
From 2028, more subjects will be added to V-level options, including:
Business and administration
Care services
Construction
Engineering and manufacturing
Health and science
Legal (as part of legal, finance and accounting route)
Sales, marketing and procurement
Sports, fitness and exercise science.
From 2029, agriculture, environmental and animal care, catering and hospitality, hair and beauty, and protective services will be added.
Then from 2030, art and performing arts, creative and design, and travel and tourism will be available as V-levels too.
In October 2025, the government announced that V-levels would be rolled out for 16-year-olds under government plans to simplify a “confusing landscape” of qualifications in England.
They are set to replace Level 3 BTecs and other post-16 technical qualifications.
The Department for Education says this is progress towards Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s target to get two-thirds of young people into a gold‑standard apprenticeship, higher training or university by the age of 25, to drive economic growth, and cut the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training (Neet).