In a recent report, Engineering and Health & Social BTecs are being scrapped for young people in England to encourage more students to move to T-level technical qualifications.

The government has published a draft list of 160 qualifications it says overlap with T-levels.

There were criticisms last year of the plans to withdraw funding for most BTecs and other applied general qualifications from 2024

BTecs open doors for poorer students according to UK colleges.

Other BTec Nationals on the list include:

• computer science
• business information systems
• children’s play, learning and development

In 2021 it was estimated that more than 230,000 students completed BTec Nationals.

T-levels, studied over one or two years and each worth three A-levels for university applications, were introduced in 2020.

The 10 courses available so far include:

• education and childcare
• design, surveying and planning for construction

BTecs can also be used for university applications, although many use them to gain occupation-specific skills.