T Levels April 2025 update
Welcome to April's T Level Update. This month, we're announcing the launch of two new T Levels, sharing upcoming live events, our usual sector updates and much more.
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We’re pleased to announce that the T Level in Health and the T Level in Science join our growing T Level family, ready for first teach September 2026.
This will not affect your 2024 or 2025 intake; those students will complete their T level with NCFE.
For those currently delivering the T Levels in Health and in Science with NCFE, it's important we hear your views and collaborate on creating a qualification that meets the needs of you and your students. If you’d like to be involved in the development and delivery of the new Technical Qualifications, consider joining our provider panel. Joining the panel means you can help shape the qualification, with access to draft specifications and assessment materials as they’re developed.
If you would like to get involved, please contact Andrew Hambelton at andrew.hambelton@pearson.com or tlevelsemployers@pearson.com.
We are also looking for employers to join our employer panel. If you are already running these T Levels and have links to employers, please ask them to get in touch.
We will keep you updated via the sector updates in our monthly T Level newsletter. If you’ve got any questions or would like to work with us on an individual level as we develop these new T Levels, please contact tlevelsemployers@pearson.com.
We are running regional events in May to support the T Levels, with a focus on the core exams and how to improve student outcomes. Some of the events will have current T Level practitioners giving advice as well as offering the chance to network and learn more about T Levels. Find the event that best suits you and book your place; we look forward to seeing you there!
Pearson Regional T Level Network: Exeter College, 1 May, 10:00–13:00
Book your place
Pearson Regional T Level Network: Middlesbrough College, 2 May, 10:00–13:00
Book your place
Pearson Regional T Level Network: Canvey Island, 6 May, 10:00–13:00
Book your place
Pearson Regional T Level Network: Blackburn College, 8 May, 10:00–13:00
Book your place
Pearson Regional T Level Network: University College Birmingham, 9 May, 10:00–13:00
Book your place
The approval window will open in February for providers commencing delivery in September 2025. You must gain approval for each Technical Qualification you wish to deliver.
Please watch our provider approval video before starting your application process (04:09 mins)
You can find support documents and approval forms on our training and admin support page, including:
- a guide to provider approval – start here!
- Pearson T Level technical qualification delivery approval application form
- Pearson vocational provider approval application for T Level Technical Qualifications
- fast-track provider approval application form
Visit our training and admin support page
If you have any questions about provider approval, please get in touch.
For those of you currently delivering Generation 1 T Levels in Construction and/or Digital, therefore moving to the Generation 2 specifications in September 2025, there will be a period of parallel running, either with the delivery of two specifications with the same awarding organisation or working with two different awarding organisations.
See the Generation 2 section of our FAQs for more information
Our draft key dates schedules for 2025/26 and 2026/27 are now available on our training and admin support page, and we’d greatly appreciate your feedback.
Download your draft key dates schedules
Once you’ve downloaded the draft schedules, please complete this short form by 2 May to share your feedback.
Entries for core component summer assessments are now open. You must make an entry for every student wishing to enter the assessment.
If you are making resit entries, please ensure you are familiar with the resit rules, which you can find in the TQ specification, or watch our support video on assessment, results and resits on our training and admin support page.
As the exam season approaches, please ensure you’re familiar with Ofqual’s guidance on resilience in the qualifications system in the unlikely event that exams should not go ahead.
It asks that schools and colleges ensure students sit mock exams in exam conditions before their formal exams, and that their papers are retained. One set of mocks for this purpose should be sufficient. By doing this, schools and colleges will ensure they have alternative evidence of student performance to enable alternative methods of awarding grades.
A new qualification description is now available for the Gen 2 Technical Qualification, reflecting the removal of the Hazardous Materials occupational specialism for students starting from 2025.
Download the new qualification description
A new occupational specialism (OS) relating to Construction Project Management will be available for new students, with the first assessments now planned from 2027. This means students registering in September 2025 should be able to transfer over to the new specialism in their second year. The specification for the new OS won’t be published until later this year, however you can have early sight on request and/or via contributing to our provider panel.
The transition guide for those moving from BTEC Nationals in Construction to the T Level, including mapping of BTEC National units to the core content areas, is available on the course materials page.
Download the transition mapping guide
Pearson has been working with the Gatsby Foundation to provide high quality teaching resources for several topics in the Core: Law, Maths and Modern Methods of Construction. These will be published shortly on the Gatsby website.
Explore Construction resources on the Technical Education Networks site
We’ve recently released new additional specimen assessment materials (ADSAMs) for the core exam and employer-set project, so you now have two sets of specimen assessments to help you and your students prepare. You can find them on the qualification page under ‘course materials’.
Download the new additional specimen assessment materials
Make sure you've downloaded the updated versions of the specifications, as we’ve made a number of minor updates to improve clarity. Review the ‘summary of changes’ table at the front of each specification for full details of the changes. These updates have not impacted the content or structure of assessments.
Download the updated specifications
Film & TV Educators Network
The Film & TV Educators Network aims to connect and support screen educators across the UK through networking, sharing best practice and industry-facing events. Membership and events are free and open to all teachers of film/media.
Join the Film & TV Educators Network
Training
On our training and admin support page, you’ll find Getting to Know the Specification videos for an introduction to key information in the specifications and overview of the course structure.
Watch our Getting to know the specification videos
You can also sign up for live Getting Ready to Teach training events running in June on our events page, or you can watch the recordings of past sessions:
Sign up for upcoming events
Getting Ready to Teach the T Level in Media Broadcast and Production (1h 7mins)
Getting Ready to Teach T Level in Craft and Design (1h 18 mins)
As part of our refresh of the Digital qualifications, we will be giving the 2025 versions new titles.
| Generation 1 T Level title | Generation 2 T Level title |
|---|---|
| Digital Production, Design and Development | Digital Software Development (with the occupational specialism retitled to match the standard as Digital Software Development) |
| Digital Support Services | Digital Support and Security |
| Digital Business Services | Digital Data Analytics (with the occupational specialism retitled to match the standard as Data Analytics Technician) |
We hope the new titles give a better indication as to the knowledge and skills developed in the T Level and translate more effectively when speaking to potential students, employers, and HEIs.
We will be resuming our podcast series in April, and we will have specials looking at each of the Digital T Levels as well as the content and assessments.
Listen to the Digital T Levels Development podcast on Spotify
We have worked with Cisco and their Networking Academy on teaching resources for Python and other programming languages used in the occupational specialism. It's completely free to sign up and become a Cisco Networking Academy centre.
Access the resources and find out more at the Cisco Networking Academy
Gatsby are continuing the roll out the Digital T Level; they have been created by industry experts like Raspberry Pi and our own examiners to support your delivery. For information, keep an eye on Gatsby's website.
We have updated the specification, core exams, employer-set project, and occupational specialisms, and all materials have been sent to IfATE for final approval.
If you haven’t yet seen the updated specifications, email andrew.hambelton@pearson.com and ask to join the provider panel and he can then send you the latest versions of the specification.
These Generation 2 T Levels will be delivered by Pearson from September 2026. This will not affect your 2024 or 2025 intake; those students will complete their T level with NCFE.
Our development starts this month, and we want to collaborate with you from the very beginning. Thank you to those of you who fed into our listening sessions; if you missed them, we’d still love to hear your opinions about the content, the structure and manageability of the assessments, and anything else you feel would be useful as we refresh both Technical Qualifications. Please contact Andrew Hambelton at andrew.hambleton@pearson.com to arrange a chat.
We have resources to support your delivery, including schemes of work for the core and occupational specialism components, exemplar materials for the employer set project, and a content overview for Core Paper 2.
We also have a podcast series from our examiners that guides you through the core exams, our schemes of work and other aspects of the qualification.
Explore the resources on the course materials page
Improvements to the occupational specialism
We’ve made some changes to the T Level Finance occupational specialisms to help make assessment clearer and more efficient.
We will no longer be providing pre-release materials. This change is designed to streamline your preparation process, ensuring all necessary information is included within the main assessment documents.
Tasks that were previously split into separate documents (e.g., Task A and Task B) will now be combined into a single task booklet. This adjustment aims to simplify the administration and handling of assessment materials.
We’ve uploaded updated administrative support guides to reflect these changes, and these are available to download from our course materials page, along with curriculum planners.
Explore the resources on the course materials page
Support from The Chartered Insurance Insitute
Our partner The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) has a dedicated T Levels page to support you.
Our employer partner ACCA has a range of support for you.
We have partnered with The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) to support providers and students. Details of the exemptions we have agreed to align with the CIM Level 3 qualifications and membership to their new Marketing Club are now available on our website.
Find out more about our partnership with CIM
The Technical Qualification specification is now available on our website.
Download the Marketing specification
The delivery guide and schemes of work are now available to download from the course materials page.
Access Marketing course materials
Registrations are now open for our Getting Ready to Teach events later this year on our events and training page.
Getting Ready to Teach T Level in Marketing (CORE)
Book your place for 2 April, 16:00–17:30
Book your place for 16 June, 16:00–17:30
Our training and admin support page gathers everything you need to support your T Level delivery:
- On-demand training such as Getting to Know the Specification, Employer Set Project training, Keeping it Simple materials, and our termly policy update.
- T Level live training where you can search for events and book Q&A networks, Getting Ready to Teach events, Getting Ready to Assess events.
- Our training archive collects recordings of past events if you are unable to attend any of our live training sessions or want to listen again.
- Administration documents and support, including key dates schedules, Provider approval guidance, administration support guides for assessment, videos to support making registrations and entries, understanding resit rules, and much more.
- Teaching support materials are padlocked, meaning they require an Edexcel Online account to access them. If you don't have Edexcel Online access, please speak to your centre exams officer.
If you need specific support with your T Level, our subject advisors are here to help. You can book a 15-minute one-to-one call where you can discuss any issue you are having with regards to planning or delivery of your T Level.
