Guidance

T Levels funding guide for 2023 to 2024

Updated 11 September 2024

Applies to England

Errors in recording data

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

Making errors in recording your T Level data could have a significant financial impact. It could lead to a larger than expected recovery of funding at the T Level funding reconciliation point in early 2025. Furthermore, it will also have an impact on the number of T Level students funded for the 2025 to 2026 academic year.

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 2023 to 2024

August 2023 changes

From academic year 2024 to 2025, we will refer to the T Level transition programmes as the T Level foundation year programmes.

However, we will continue to refer to T Level transition programmes in this guidance until the department and ESFA use the new wording in all T Level guidance and data recording.

July 2023 changes

• On 13 July 2023 we announced a further investment of £185 million in 2023 to 2024 financial year and £285 million in 2024 to 2025 financial year to drive forward skills delivery in the further education sector.
• This funding will help colleges and other 16 to 19 providers to address key priorities, as they see fit, including tackling recruitment and retention issues in high-value technical, vocational, and academic provision which are of critical importance to our economic growth and prosperity.

For T Levels, this means:

• an increase to the national funding rates for T Levels in proportion to the increase on national funding rates
• increase in all programme cost weightings (PCWs)
• increase to T Level rate for disadvantage block 2 instances to £758

Wave 4 T Level and industry placements

We recognise the resource that institutions put into preparing to deliver some T Levels that are now deferred, including engaging with employers to secure industry placements. Therefore, while we will remove the funding related to the deferred wave 4 T Levels, we are allowing institutions that have not withdrawn from delivery to retain the industry placement element of their funding for academic year 2023 to 2024, to support continued engagement with employers and delivery of industry placement style experiences.

The rates and policies shown on this page now include all the increases and amendments agreed.

March 2023 changes

We:

• made a 10% increase to the national funding rates for T Levels (bands 6 to 9) specifically for academic year 2023 to 2024. All national funding rates for academic year 2024 to 2025 are still be confirmed, including this uplift
• added the new wave 4 T Levels that are due to start being delivered from the 2023 to 2024 academic year to the list of specialisms
• amended the PCWs for several T Levels and there is an increase to 7 different PCW rates
• reduced the under-delivery tolerance rate for T Levels for 2023 to 2024 to 10% for institutions who started delivering T Levels in the 2022 to 2023 academic year or earlier

The tolerance rate remains at 20% for institutions who start to deliver T Levels in the 2023 to 2024 academic year.

We will not use lagged student numbers for 2025 to 2026 allocations. We will assess when the best point to apply lagged student numbers to future T Level funding years will be and will publish further details and guidance as soon as we can.

T Level choices

Registering students on T Levels

We expect students to decide about 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 Production, Design and Development; Digital Support Services; or Digital Business Services. 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 which 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 individual learner record (ILR) or school census in October of year 1.

To ensure 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. To ensure that institutions receive the right level of funding, a student’s occupational specialism must be confirmed in the ILR/census by July of year 1, although 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.

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:

• 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 2 year programmes
• consistent funding for 18 year olds 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 additional hours and demands of T Levels

Calculate your programme funding

Figure 1: Diagram showing the elements of the 16 to 19 funding formula that make up your funding allocation

The T Level funding formula

T Level funding

There are some differences between T Level funding and the 16 to 19 funding, as per below.

We have based the academic year 2023 to 2024 funding allocations for T Level students on your estimated new start student numbers across the funding bands, plus the number of students you expect to carry over from the 2022 to 2023 academic year.

In previous years, new starts and carry in student numbers were returned together in your estimate return. From academic year 2023 to 2024 only new starters have been returned via the estimate return. We have calculated carry in student numbers using your 2022 to 2023 ILR R04 or autumn 2022 census return, selecting T Level students in bands 6 to 9 where the planned end date of the latest T Level programme aim is after 31 July 2023 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.

Core formula funding elements

These are the sections of the top line of the funding formula.

Student numbers

At present, we do not fund T Levels using the full 16 to 19 lagged funding methodology. We said in the 2022 to 2023 T Level guidance that we may fully move to a lagged funding methodology for T Levels in the academic year 2025 to 2026.

We can confirm that we will continue to use a hybrid lagged approach until at least 2026 to 2027 allocations. We will assess when the best point to apply lagged student numbers to future T Level funding years will be and will publish further details and guidance as soon as we can.

For the academic year 2023 to 2024, we use student numbers that you submitted in October 2022, based on your planned recruitment for autumn 2023 and your carry in students, which should include what specialism is being taken. 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 affect an institution’s overall allocation of lagged student numbers – only the bands in which we will fund them.

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

Under- and over-delivery

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 2023 to 2024
• school census autumn return 2023

Then we compare your:

• planned numbers against your enrolments
• recorded student numbers against your final numbers recorded in year-end data (R14 or 2023 autumn school census)

If we change your T Level student numbers, we will recalculate your allocation and issue another allocation statement.

We do not accept business cases for changes to 2023 to 2024 student numbers, including where you fail to submit accurate data in the R04 or autumn school census for 2023 to 2024.

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

Under-delivery

We apply a tolerance for under-delivery because we recognise that you will have planned and committed expenditure to deliver your agreed T Level student numbers.

Delivery is now embedded across the sector; we have therefore moved away from the original 40% under delivery tolerance and:

• reduced this tolerance to 10% against each funding band for institutions who started to deliver any T Levels in the 2022 to 2023 academic year or earlier
• set under delivery tolerance to 20% for institutions starting to deliver T Levels, against each funding band for academic year 2023 to 2024

We have published tolerance examples to show you what your delivery may look like for under- and over-delivery.

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.

Funding rates and bands

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.

We allocate each T Level a funding band depending on the size of the programme and the minimum hours required. T Levels are 2 year programmes, so the minimum hours are spread over 2 academic years.

Table 2 shows the average and minimum planned hours over a 2 year course, along with the funding rates for each of the bands. These also include the new requirement for additional hours from the academic year 2022 to 2023.

Table 2

	average planned hours	minimum planned hours required for the band	funding rate (2 years)
Band 6 – small T Levels	1,330 hours	1,180 hours	£10,876
Band 7 – medium T Levels	1,530 hours	1,380 hours	£12,544
Band 8 – large T Levels	1,680 hours	1,580 hours	£13,794
Band 9 – very large T Levels	1,830 hours	1,730 hours	£15,046

The national funding rates per student for 1 year of the T Level programme used for academic year 2023 to 2024 is half the amounts shown in Table 2.

This includes a 10% uplift to T Level funding for the academic year 2023 to 2024. Students who are continuing a T Level after starting one in the 2022 to 2023 academic year will have the second year of their programme funded at a higher rate than their first year.

All national funding rates for academic year 2024 to 2025 are still to be confirmed, including whether this uplift will be applied.

Recording T level programmes in your data returns

T Level data is recorded differently to 16 to 19 study programme data. For example, the T Level planned hours are recorded for the whole programme, across 2 years.

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

Deliver minimum planned hours

You must deliver at or above the minimum hours for the funding band to receive that funding rate. We do not count maths and English or industry placements as planned hours. They are recorded differently.

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

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

You will need to deliver and record more EEP and/or qualification hours/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.

Where these are below the minimum for the T Level, we will fund at the appropriate lower band. Where this results in the student being recorded in band 5, where all the components of the T Level are recorded, all the additional features of a T Level will be retained, such as no reduction in rate for 18-year-olds and additional industry placement funding.

Additional hours

As part of the government’s commitment to a long-term education recovery plan, we are funding 80 additional learning hours across the 2 year programme for T Level students. The additional hours in T Levels are reflected through increases to funding band hours.

We increased funding band hours to account for the additional hours, and these bands will be enforced by recovery of funding where planned hours do not meet the minimum for the band resulting in students falling into lower funding bands.

Institutions should:

• use additional hours flexibly and broadly in line with T Level guidance to best meet the needs of students
• prioritise maths in the use of additional hours where there is an identified student need
• use additional hours to support mental health, wellbeing or study skills where these are a barrier to students’ learning

T Levels are 2 year programmes, so you will need to deliver an additional 80 hours over the whole programme for students commencing the programmes from academic year 2023 to 2024. These additional hours must be recorded in your 2023 to 2024 data return. For students who started their programme in the 2022 to 2023 academic year you should deliver the remainder of the 80 additional hours in their second year of the course which has not been delivered in their first year.

You may also find our record your T Level data correctly guide useful.

How to record the hours

If you do not record the additional hours for these students correctly, they may fall into a lower funding band. This will affect your funding.

First-year T Level students

The additional 80 hours are included in the average and minimum planned hours detailed in table 2. You must ensure planned hours meet at least the minimum hours appropriate to each band.

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 all this information in table 3.

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 the early years occupational specialism for the Education and Early Years T Level is funded 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 you deliver the minimum hours by either adding additional qualification hours and/or EEP:

• assisting teaching and supporting
• mentoring students in education settings

Table 3 shows the T Level occupational specialisms by funding band and delivery date (wave).

Table 3

Delivery from (academic year)	T Level specialism	Funding band
2021 to 2022 Wave 1 T Levels	Design, surveying, and planning
	Civil engineering	7
	Surveying and design for construction and the built environment	7
	Building services design	7
	Hazardous materials analysis and surveying	7
	Digital production, design, and development
	Digital production, design, and development	7
	Education and early years
	Assisting teaching	6
	Early years educator	6
	Supporting and mentoring students in education settings	6
2021 to 2022 Wave 2 T Levels	Health
	Supporting healthcare specialism
	Dental nursing	6
	Supporting the adult nursing team	6
	Supporting the midwifery team	6
	Supporting the mental health team	6
	Supporting the care of children and young people	6
	Supporting therapy teams	6
	Healthcare science
	Assisting with healthcare science	6
	Optical Care Services	6
	Science
	Technical: Laboratory sciences	7
	Technical: Food sciences	7
	Technical: Metrology sciences	7
	Digital business services
	Data technician	7
	Digital support services
	Digital infrastructure	7
	Network cabling	7
	Digital support	7
	On site construction
	Carpentry and joinery	6
	Plastering	6
	Bricklaying	6
	Painting and decorating	6
	Building services engineering
	Electrotechnical engineering	7
	Electrical and electronic equipment engineering	6
	Gas engineering	7
	Protection systems engineering	6
	The following 3 can be offered in combination
	Plumbing and heating engineering	7
	Heating engineering and ventilation	7
	Refrigeration engineering and air conditioning engineering	7
2022 to 2023 Wave 3 T Levels	Business and administration
	Management and administration
	Business improvement	7
	Team leadership/management	7
	Business support	7
	Accounting
	Assistant accountant	6
	Legal, finance, accounting
	Finance
	Retail and commercial banking analyst	6
	Investment banking and asset and wealth management analyst	6
	Insurance practitioner	6
	Financial compliance/risk analyst	6
	Engineering and manufacturing
	Design and development
	Mechanical engineering	8
	Electrical and electronic engineering	8
	Control and instrumentation engineering	8
	Structural engineering	8
	Maintenance, Installation and Repair TQ
	Maintenance engineering technologies: Mechanical	8
	Maintenance engineering technologies: Mechatronic	8
	Control a Maintenance engineering technologies: Electrical and Electronic	8
	Maintenance engineering technologies: Control and Instrumentation	8
	Light and Electrical Vehicles	8
	Manufacturing, Processing and Control TQ
	Fitting and assembly technologies	8
	Machining and toolmaking technologies	8
	Composites manufacturing technologies	8
	Fabrication and welding technologies	8
2023 to 2024 Wave 4 T Levels	Agriculture, Environmental and Animal Care
	Animal Care and Management
	Animal Care and Management	8
	Equine Management	8
	Agriculture, Land Management and Production
	Crop Production	8
	Floristry	7
	Land-Based Engineering	8
	Livestock Production	8
	Ornamental and Environment, Horticulture and Landscaping	8
	Trees and Woodland Management and Maintenance	8
	Legal, Finance and Accounting
	Legal Services TQ
	Legal Services: Assistant Business, Finance and Employment	7
	Legal Services: Assistant Crime, Criminal Justice and Social Welfare	7
	Digital
	Digital Support Services TQ
	Cyber Security OS	7

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

We use the year-end core aim recorded in the ILR and school census to inform future year funding factors and bands.

Sometimes a student might transfer to a different T Level or occupational specialism partway 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.

We apply our usual retention principles when a student leaves a T Level to start either:

• an apprenticeship
• something other than a 16 to 19 study programme

This is because the student has not completed their learning aim and you would lose 50% of the annual funding rate for that student.

You can find details on how to record data for transfers in the guide record your T Level data correctly. We have also published examples of how to record T Levels of how to record transfers.

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 guide record your T Level data correctly.

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 2023 to 2024

In the academic year 2023 to 2024, there are 7 PCWs for study programmes, and we publish them in our annual funding rates and formula guidance. These are the same for T Levels.

We use 2021 to 2022 data from the sector subject area (SSA) tier 2 classification of the core aim to determine PCW for students on vocational qualifications. You can find full details for PCWs by SSA for this academic year in our rates and formula guidance for 2023 to 2024. 16 to 19 study programmes generate a PCW based on the type of programme (many vocational programmes and some A level-based study programmes get a PCW) and the SSA of the programme’s core aim.

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 the Institute for Apprenticeships 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 how specialisms map to PCWs in table 4.

You can see all the PCWs for T Level routes and occupational specialisms.

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 transition programme

We have applied PCWs to each T Level route and have listed them in table 5 for the academic year 2023 to 2024.

This means that we are applying PCWs consistently for qualification and non-qualification delivery. Where the T Level maps to more than one PCW, we have taken the average.

Table 5

Route name	Previous transition programme PCW	Revised transition programme PCW
Agriculture, environmental and animal care	1.4/1.75	1.52/1.975
Business and administration	1	1.04
Catering and hospitality	1.3	1.39
Construction	1.5	1.65
Creative and design	1.1	1.1
Digital	1.3	1.43
Education and early years	1.1	1.17
Engineering and manufacturing	1.5	1.65
Hair and beauty	1.2	1.26
Health and science	1.15	1.19
Legal, finance and accounting	1	1

Level 3 programme maths and English payment

T Levels are eligible for the extra level 3 programme maths and English payment. The funding is to support you in your delivery of maths and English for students who have not yet attained a grade 9 to 4 GCSE or equivalent in either or both subjects.

Our 16 to 19 funding: Level 3 programme maths and English payment guidance provides full details on how we calculate this and how we will pay you.

Disadvantage funding

We explain how we calculate disadvantage funding in our funding rates and formula guidance including how for academic year 2023 to 2024 funding allocations, we adjusted the rate in July 2023 to take account of the change to GCSE results in 2020 and 2021.

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

• 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
• there is a higher funding rate of £758 for block 2 disadvantage for T Level students as shown in table 6. 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 the number of instances of disadvantage block 2 will be calculated for T Level students in table 6

Table 6

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

Each instance will be funded at £758, so a T Level student, without both maths and English by the end of year 11, would attract £1,516.

Large programme uplift

There could be a small number of students that 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 the academic year 2023 to 2024, we used data from the academic year 2020 to 2021. This means eligible students starting a T Level in 2023 to 2024 will attract additional funding in the academic year 2026 to 2027.

We have published the 16 to 19 funding: large programme uplift guidance which outlines how this works for T Levels, including eligibility and uplift amounts.

Maths and English condition of funding

The condition of funding applies to all students starting T Levels from the academic year 2022 to 2023 in line with the students on 16 to 19 study programmes. As a result, this condition of funding also applies to students entering their second year after starting in 2022 to 2023 and students starting their first year in 2023 to 2024.

It will not apply to students who started T Levels in the academic years 2020 to 2021, or 2021 to 2022. However, we expect these students who have yet to achieve a GCSE grade 4 in maths and English to continue to work towards a level 2 in these subjects.

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.

Where you also have an allocation for industry placement capacity and delivery fund (CDF), we will make a corresponding reduction to the number of students funded through the CDF.

For example, an institution with 100 places funded through the CDF and an allocation of 40 T Level students will be allocated industry placement funding for the 40 T Level students in their mainstream allocation and 60 qualifying students through CDF.

T Level starts 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 planned hours for the length of the T Level. 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.

Audit and monitoring

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