On 8 July, the Department for Education launched a consultation on Higher Technical Education.

Our vision is for Higher Technical Education to be a prestigious choice that delivers the skills employers need, encourages more students to continue studying after A levels or T levels and attracts workers of all ages looking to upskill and retrain.

Our review found that there is growing employer demand for the skills provided by Higher Technical Education – but it also found that uptake of higher technical qualifications is low.

Some higher technical qualifications and courses are well-recognised and valued by employers and students. But overall there is low awareness and varying quality, with a complex landscape that employers and students find hard to navigate.

To boost uptake of these qualifications and ensure courses are high-quality the Government has outlined proposals including:

• A new system to make it clearer which higher technical qualifications provide the skills that employers want. This will be delivered through the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education signalling which qualifications deliver the knowledge, skills, and behaviours set out in employer-led national standards.

• Working with the Office for Students to demonstrate the quality of providers, so there is more high-quality provision delivered across higher and further education, including through our flagship employer-led National Colleges and Institutes of Technology.

• Making Higher Technical Education a positive and more popular choice by raising awareness and understanding of the new suite of Institute-approved qualifications in colleges and universities, and among potential students and employers.

This event is an opportunity to hear more about these proposals. The consultation closes on 29 September 2019. We encourage anyone with an interest to respond to the consultation online.

Higher Technical Education consultation event: Birmingham