Guidance

T Levels funding guide 2025 to 2026

Updated 5 March 2025

Applies to England

Errors in recording data

Some T Level providers have previously recorded students incorrectly in the individualised learner record (ILR) or school census, so that they appear in funding bands 1 to 5. In some cases this was because providers recorded the planned hours for 1 year only instead of 2.

For the purposes of in-year growth, we do not accept business cases for changes to 2025 to 2026 student numbers, including where you fail to submit accurate data in the R04 or autumn school census for 2025 to 2026. Making errors in recording your T Level data could therefore have a significant financial impact because it:

• could lead to a larger than expected recovery of funding at the T Level funding reconciliation point in early 2026
• will also have an impact on the number of allocated T Level students funded for academic year 2026 to 2027, as we use your carry-in data to produce your next year’s allocations

Please read record your T Level data correctly guidance for support. You will find a checklist and examples of T Level programme elements and scenarios that explain how you should record your data returns.

Summary

Designed with businesses and employers, T Levels are 2-year, level 3 technical qualifications intended to give students the skills that the industry needs. They bring classroom learning and an extended industry placement together.

New for 2025 to 2026 

These are changes for the academic year.

Rates

We’ve published the national funding rates for T Levels. These do not include any specific T Level uplift. We will confirm the position of the T Level funding uplift in due course.

All funding rates for academic year 2026 to 2027 are still to be confirmed.

New T Level

We have added a new T Level in marketing for delivery from academic year 2025 to 2026 to the list of specialisms.

Onsite construction T Level enrolments

The onsite construction T Level will have no further enrolments, with the September 2024 entrants being the final group of students to enter onto it. Although this T Level is providing valuable education and industry experience, its success and uptake have been limited due to the overall lack of demand for a large level 3 qualification in this area. Students currently enrolled on the programme will be able to complete it as intended.

Change to funding bands

We’ve changed the funding bands for both legal services occupational specialisms. We will fund them at band 6 instead of band 7 from academic year 2025 to 2026. This adjusts the previous over-funding at band 7 during academic years 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025, and corrects an error made in the number of guided learning hours we used to calculate the planned hours. 

Removed under-delivery tolerance

We’ve removed the under-delivery tolerance, following steady reductions since 2022 to 2023. This means that all under-delivery is subject to recovery as part of the T Level reconciliation process.

Updated T Levels - generation 2

Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) ran a competitive bidding process to award generation 2 contracts for some T Levels. The contracts were due to end as they were among the first wave of the qualifications to be rolled out from 2020 and 2021. The awarding organisations have updated the following T Levels and will start delivering them from September 2025:

• Digital Production, Design and Development
• Digital Support Services
• Digital Business Services
• Design, Surveying and Planning for Construction
• Building Services Engineering for Construction
• Education and Early Years

We will fund these at the existing published funding bands for academic year 2025 to 2026. We will apply any changes to the funding bands following approval by IfATE, from academic year 2026 to 2027. You can find full details for funding bands by occupational specialisms in the T Level and transition programme cost weightings (PCWs) and funding bands list.

We will review our funding methodology for academic year 2026 to 2027 allocations. We will publish further details if the review leads to any changes.

Calculate your programme funding

16 to 19 funding formula

We use the 16 to 19 funding formula to fund institutions to deliver T Levels to their students. We count all T Level students in the 16 to 19 core programme funding and total programme funding, as shown in figure 1.

Figure 1 – 16 to 19 funding formula

16 to 19 funding formula

Core programme funding

To calculate core programme funding, we take the student numbers and multiply them by:

• funding rate per student (dependent on funding band)
• retention factor
• programme cost weighting (PCW)

We then add:

• English and maths funding
• disadvantage funding
• large programme funding

and multiply the total by:

• area cost

Total programme funding

To calculate total programme funding, we take the total core programme funding and:

• subtract the condition of funding adjustment, then add
• advanced maths premium
• core maths premium
• high value courses premium
• T Levels industry placement funding

Total funding

We add the following elements, where appropriate, to the total funding:​

• care standards funding​
• high needs students funding​
• student support funding, above the minimum discretionary bursary funding of £500

How T Level funding is different from the way we fund 16 to 19 study programmes

We have built on the existing arrangements to distribute T Level funding for 16 to 19 year olds, including:

• 4 additional funding bands to accommodate the different sizes of T Levels
• funding based on the hours above the usual full-time rate for study programmes spread over 2 years because T Levels are usually 2-year programmes – where institutions deliver T Levels over 3 years to ensure that students undertake a 12 months’ long industry placement, we will only fund the T Level for the first 2 years of the programme
• funding for 18 year olds will attract the full T Level rate because T Levels have fixed hours
• industry placement funding at a flat rate of £550, with half paid in the first year and half in the second
• extra disadvantage funding to reflect the larger T Level programme and bursary element 2b funding
• planned hours that reflect the whole programme rather than the academic year
• funding bands and PCW driven by the occupational specialism rather than the programme’s core aim

Student numbers

At present, we do not fund T Levels using the full 16 to 19 lagged methodology.

We have based academic year 2025 to 2026 funding allocations for T Level students on your estimated new starter student numbers (submitted in October 2024) across the funding bands, plus the number of carry-over students (2024 T Level cohort) identified from academic year 2024 to 2025.

You return estimated new starter student numbers via the T Level data collection.

We calculate carry-over student numbers using your 2024 to 2025 ILR R04 or autumn 2024 census return. We select T Level students in bands 6 to 9 where the planned end date of the latest T Level programme aim is after 31 July 2025 and where there is no actual end date.

It is very important that you accurately record planned hours so that we calculate your funding correctly. We have published the record your T Level data correctly guidance to help with this. It contains examples of how you should record T Level programme elements and scenarios in your data returns.

T Level student numbers form part of the overall student numbers within an organisation.

T Level students will, in the main, be students who would otherwise have taken other 16 to 19 courses. Therefore, the funding of planned T Level student numbers will not change an institution’s overall allocation of lagged student numbers – only the bands in which we will fund them. T Level funding will be allocated as additional hours (through students moving to higher funding bands), but not additional students.

We are reviewing our funding methodology for T Levels in academic year 2026 to 2027. We will publish further details if there are any changes.

Distribution of students across funding bands

Once we have agreed T Level numbers, we redistribute those numbers from band 5 into the T Level funding bands, as shown in table 1, with your overall lagged students number remaining the same for the academic year.

Table 1

Existing funding band	Lagged students before agreeing T Level numbers	New funding bands	Lagged and T Level students after agreeing T Level numbers
-	-	Band 8	20
-	-	Band 7	40
-	-	Band 6	40
Band 5	500	Band 5	400
Band 4	200	Band 4	200
Band 3	100	Band 3	100
Band 2	100	Band 2	100
Band 1	100	Band 1	100
Total	1,000	Total	1,000

T Level numbers would have otherwise been funded as band 5. The extra funding that T Level numbers attract is the difference between the T Level band and band 5. For example, a T Level band 7 can be understood as being a band 5 that is already part of your overall lagged numbers plus the additional funding needed to reach the band 7 funding rate.

As with all other students, allocated T Level students will attract all formulaic elements, for example, PCWs, retention and disadvantage. In addition, the number of industry placements that we fund is directly related to the allocated number of band 6 to 9 students.

T Level in-year reconciliation process

We calculate under- and over-delivery against your planned numbers by reviewing your data in-year.

To do this, we review your first data return of the year:

• R04 ILR return for 2025 to 2026
• school census autumn return 2025

Then we compare your T Level enrolments against your allocated numbers.

If we reduce your T Level student numbers, we will recalculate your allocation and issue another allocation statement in spring 2026. When we do this, we will return these students to band 5 because they are taking an alternative 16 to 19 programme.

This means we will reduce your funding by removing:

• the difference between the T Level band and band 5 (plus all formulaic elements)
• industry placement funding and associated bursary element 2b funding

Similarly, if we increase your T Level student numbers, we will take them from band 5 as we assume these students are now undertaking T Levels rather than alternative band 5 programmes.

We may also compare your first data return of the year against your last data return of the year. If the final data return shows that the in-year data is inaccurate, we will recover some or all of the T Level funding we allocated in spring 2026. We would not allocate more funding as a result of this end-of-year exercise.

For the purposes of in-year growth, we do not accept business cases for changes to 2025 to 2026 student numbers, including where you fail to submit accurate data in the R04 or autumn school census for 2025 to 2026.

We will, however, accept business cases within the published thresholds if data errors have an impact on your carry-in students in next year’s allocation.

Exceptional in-year growth in overall student numbers

The exceptional in-year growth process will apply if recruitment to T Levels results in an overall increase in lagged student numbers. This process is subject to affordability. Exceptional in-year growth does not apply to both independent learning providers, which are subject to separate funding reconciliation arrangements, and academies funded on estimates that are subject to pupil number adjustment.

Funding bands and rates

For T Levels, we set the funding band for each occupational specialism based on the expected guided learning hours (GLH) for the core and specialist content.

We expect that providers will deliver at least the minimum planned hours unless there are exceptional circumstances. We have set out the average and minimum hours for each band in table 2. More information on the circumstances in which it is acceptable to record planned hours below the minimum is in the delivery is less than the minimum hours section.

Table 2 shows the average and minimum hours for each band.

Table 2

	Average planned hours	Minimum planned hours required for the band
Band 6 – small T Levels	1,330 hours	1,180 hours
Band 7 – medium T Levels	1,530 hours	1,380 hours
Band 8 – large T Levels	1,680 hours	1,580 hours
Band 9 – very large T Levels	1,830 hours	1,730 hours

When a T Level programme is smaller than the minimum hours, we use the planned hours recorded to determine the appropriate funding band.

We do not fund T Levels at a higher band than the one set for the student’s occupational specialism, even when the planned hours exceed the minimum for a higher band.

The planned hours recorded for T Levels must not include industry placements or additional qualifications that are not part of the T Level. Industry placements have a separate funding rate and the large programme uplift gives extra funding for AS and A levels. From academic year 2024 to 2025 onwards, you must include the hours for English and maths qualifications in the T Level hours. There is more information on recording T Levels on GOV.UK.

We pay more for T Levels because they have more teaching hours, and we are more prescriptive about what is delivered and the contents of a course than for 16 to 19 study programmes.

T Level funding rates for academic year 2025 to 2026 do not include any specific T Level uplift. We will confirm the position of the T Level funding uplift in due course. We fund students at different rates in the 2 years of their programmes depending on the applicable rates at the time.

Usually, a T Level programme will last 2 years and we publish the funding rate for the whole programme. We pay 50% of the funding rate each year, at the applicable rate for that year. We do not usually pay any additional funding for students who continue on their T Level into a third year. We will only fund students for one further year when they meet the criteria for a funded retake set out in the funding regulations. Students whose T Level only lasts one year will receive 50% of the T Level rate for the specific year in question.

You can see the full T Level funding rates in table 3. 

Table 3

	50% of the T Level funding rate per student, in 2025 to 2026	T Level funding rate
Band 6 – small T Levels	£5,228	£10,456
Band 7 – medium T Levels	£6,030	£12,060
Band 8 – large T Levels	£6,631	£13,262
Band 9 – very large T Levels	£7,232	£14,464

All funding rates for academic year 2026 to 2027 are still to be confirmed.

T Level choices: registering students on T Levels 

We expect students to decide their T Level pathway within the first few weeks of their course, supported by good information, advice and guidance from their institution.

For example, a student might know that they want to do a Digital T Level but not be clear at the outset whether that should be Digital Software Development, Digital Support and Security or Digital Data Analytics. If an institution is offering 2 or 3 of the available pathways, there may be some co-delivery or other activity in the first few weeks that provides students with the opportunity to find out about different occupations, for example through employer visits. A student’s chosen T Level pathway and planned occupational specialism should be recorded on the ILR or school census in autumn of year 1.

To ensure that there is sufficient time to cover the curriculum, decisions about occupational specialisms should be confirmed by the end of the first year, although this could be much earlier depending on an institution’s curriculum model. For example, some institutions start teaching the occupational specialism early in the first year and require students to decide about this at the start of their course, whereas other institutions may only start teaching occupational specialisms in the second year. Changes after this date are possible. 

Institutions will also need to ensure that they register their students on the technical qualification with the awarding organisation and enter them for assessments, as relevant.

Minimum planned hours

Deliver minimum planned hours

You must deliver at or above the minimum hours for the funding band to receive that funding rate. You must include the hours for English and maths qualifications in the T Level hours.

You can find detailed information about T Level data in the record your T Level data correctly guidance.

For example, you have recorded less than 1,180 hours (the minimum planned hours for band 6) for a student’s programme and you have:

• included the employability, enrichment and pastoral (EEP) hours you are delivering
• not included planned hours for industry placements as these are not counted in the minimum hours

You will need to deliver and record more EEP and/or qualification hours or teaching to meet the minimum hours for the band. If you do not do this, then you will receive funding for the lower band – in this case, band 5. In addition, you will also need to record a minimum of 315 industry placement hours, although the average for industry placement hours is typically 340 hours.

Delivery is less than the minimum hours

In exceptional circumstances, it may be appropriate to offer fewer hours, for instance where a student has significant, relevant prior learning. In those instances, you must record the correct planned hours in the ILR or school census.

Where these are below the minimum for the T Level, we will fund at the appropriate lower band. Where all the components of the T Level are recorded, all the additional features of a T Level will be retained: there will be no reduction in rate for 18 year olds and industry placement and bursary element 2b funding will still be attracted.

T Level occupational specialisms and funding bands

We have introduced T Levels in different waves. This means they are available for delivery from different academic years. We assign a funding band to each T Level occupational specialism.

We have set out this information in the T Level and transition PCW and funding bands list.

For all T Levels

We have assumed that 150 EEP hours will also be completed.

For Education and Early Years

On top of this, we expect that you should deliver 100 additional hours as part of the necessary observation on the industry placement as set out in the Education and Early Years technical qualification specification. These 100 hours, for this T Level only, should be counted and recorded as planned hours.

This means that we fund the early years occupational specialism for the Education and Early Years T Level at band 6.

The following occupational specialisms are also funded at band 6 but are below the minimum hours of 1,180. Therefore, you will need to ensure that you deliver the minimum hours by either adding additional qualification hours and/or EEP:

• assisting teaching and supporting
• supporting and mentoring students in education settings

Retention

T Levels are recorded as 2-year programmes, with retention calculated on an annual basis. When students are on a 2-year programme and they complete the first year, they will be counted as retained in that academic year. We define completing the first year as being in learning on the last working day in June. The same principle applies in the second year.

Transfers

Sometimes a student might transfer to a different T Level or occupational specialism part way through the year. In this case, we use the last recorded T Level. You can record a transfer to another T Level after the end of the first year but it may have a funding implication if the student’s funding band is different from the one recorded in the first year.

Sometimes a student might transfer to a study programme. In these cases, we use the study programme’s planned hours for funding purposes.

You can find details on how to record data for transfers and examples in the record your T Level data correctly guidance.

Transferring between T Levels and occupational specialisms

We expect some students will switch between T Levels or occupational specialisms, or transfer from one programme to another. Details on how to record data for transfers is in the record your T Level data correctly guidance.

Institutions should consider the degree of overlap between the 2 T Levels and the remaining time before any assessments in determining if a transfer is possible – or whether a student will need to restart their T Level. Attainment from one T Level cannot count towards another, and all students will need to take and pass the relevant assessments to pass their T Level.

Programme cost weightings (PCWs)

We use PCWs because we recognise that some programmes are more costly to deliver than others.

PCWs for 2025 to 2026

In academic year 2025 to 2026, there are 7 PCWs for study programmes.

T Levels use the same 7 PCWs. We assign the factors by occupational specialism as some specialisms cover more than one sector subject area (SSA).

You can find full details for PCWs by SSA for this academic year in our rates and formula guidance for 2025 to 2026.

Lagged funding and PCWs

We apply PCWs to T Levels in a different way from 16 to 19 study programmes. We apply the PCW at the occupational specialism level. This is because the qualification structure for T Levels is different from study programmes.

We have worked with IfATE to map T Levels to apprenticeship standards. As part of this mapping, we apply a consistent link to SSAs and PCWs and allocate a single PCW to each T Level occupational specialism.

Where occupational specialisms within a T Level map to more than 2 SSAs and PCWs, we have applied the majority PCW, that is the one that has most specialisms mapped to it. We have explained this in table 4.

You can see all the PCWs for T Level routes and occupational specialisms in annex A of the rates and formula guidance.

Table 4

T Level	Specialism	Apprenticeship standard name	SSA name	Study programme PCW	Occupational specialism PCW to be applied to T Levels
Design surveying and planning	Surveying and design for construction and the built environment	Digital engineering technician	Building and construction	1.65	1.65
Design surveying and planning	Surveying and design for construction and the built environment	Surveying technician	Building and construction	1.65	1.65
Design surveying and planning	Surveying and design for construction and the built environment	Geospatial survey technician	Geography	1	1.65

PCW for T Level Foundation Year (formerly T Level Transition Programme)

T Level foundation years are linked to T Level routes. When the routes cover multiple SSAs and multiple weightings, we assign an average weighting. You can find full details for PCWs for all foundation years in the T Level and transition PCW and funding bands list.

English and maths

English and maths funding

Our 16 to 19 funding: English and maths funding page provides full details on how we calculate this and how we will pay you.

Maths and English condition of funding

Students must be supported to improve their maths and/or English skills as part of their 16 to 19 study programmes or T Levels, where they do not hold a GCSE grade 9 to 4 (a level 2 pass grade) or equivalent qualification in these subjects.

This requirement is a condition of funding and we remove funding from future allocations for students who do not meet it. For 2025 to 2026 academic year, this will impact funding allocations in 2027 to 2028 academic year.

Disadvantage funding

We explain how we calculate disadvantage funding in our funding rates and formula guidance.

Disadvantage funding works the same way as study programmes with 2 exceptions:

1. T Levels have more planned hours than study programmes. The calculation of the overall economic deprivation factor is weighted based on individual students and their historic programme size. Therefore, there will be a higher block 1 funding amount.

2. There is a higher funding rate of £772 for block 2 disadvantage for T Level students as shown in table 5. This is because T Levels are large, demanding programmes and additional support will be needed for students with special educational needs, low attainment and disabilities, including when they are on an industry placement. You can see an example of how we calculate the number of instances of disadvantage block 2 for T Level students in table 5.

Table 5

Total number of students	Number of instances for maths and English	Instances per student	T Level students	Number of instances of block 2 funding for T Level students
1,000	350	0.35	40	14

We will fund each instance at £772, so a T Level student, without both maths and English by the end of year 11, would attract £1,544.

Large programme uplift

There could be a small number of students who will want to take an A or AS level alongside their T Level. In these cases, we will provide extra funding through the large programme uplift. T Levels are the only programmes where an AS level taken alongside can be eligible for the large programme uplift.

We identity the number of eligible students using your historical data. For academic year 2025 to 2026, we use data from academic year 2022 to 2023. This means eligible students starting a T Level in 2025 to 2026 will attract additional funding in academic year 2028 to 2029.

Industry placements

Industry placements are a compulsory part of a T Level and must be delivered in line with the industry placements delivery guidance. We fund institutions a total of £550 per student for the industry placement element of the T Level programme; £275 per student in each of the 2 years of the T Level. We pay for the T Level student numbers agreed with institutions.

This funding is to support the infrastructure and resource required to plan, source, deliver and monitor industry placements. It is not to support employer costs for hosting placements.

T Level students who start part way through the year

Students usually start T Levels at the beginning of an academic year. There may be some students who have sufficient prior learning for whom it is appropriate to join a group part way through the year.

In these instances, you must record the total hours that you plan to deliver across the length of the T Level from the point of enrolment, not the hours that you would typically deliver for 2 full years. We will calculate the level of funding that will apply to those planned hours. We will then distribute this funding over the length of the T Level programme in a similar way to part-year study programmes.

T Level programme and a study programme in the same funding year

We will not fund students to take more than one full-time learning programme or the equivalent in multiple part-time programmes, in one institution, in one funding year. We will only fund the latest programme that has been recorded in the funding year.

T Level funding for non-maintained special schools (NMSS) and special academy sixth forms

NMSS and special academy sixth forms can deliver T Levels. As with study programmes, additional costs incurred by these institutions for delivering T Levels can be met by the local authority through its high needs top-up funding if the programme is commissioned by the authority, and the additional cost is agreed as part of the overall cost that is met through the school’s high needs place and top-up funding. Therefore, these institutions will not receive specific T Level funding from the Department for Education.

Audit and monitoring

We audit and monitor T Levels as part of the usual 16 to 19 funding audit process.