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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Learning will be designed around real jobs and the skills employers actually need, to help young people secure well-paid jobs, it adds.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
From 2028, more subjects will be added to V-level options, including:<\/p>\n
Business and administration<\/p>\n
Care services<\/p>\n
Construction<\/p>\n
Engineering and manufacturing<\/p>\n
Health and science<\/p>\n
Legal (as part of legal, finance and accounting route)<\/p>\n
Sales, marketing and procurement<\/p>\n
Sports, fitness and exercise science.<\/p>\n
From 2029, agriculture, environmental and animal care, catering and hospitality, hair and beauty, and protective services will be added.<\/p>\n
Then from 2030, art and performing arts, creative and design, and travel and tourism will be available as V-levels too.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
They are set to replace Level 3 BTecs and other post-16 technical qualifications.<\/p>\n