Thread by @CarolineLucas

A quick🧵

Sorry/annoyed to miss the important #ProtectStudentChoice debate today - as @borisjohnson is so desperate to cling on he's tabled a motion of confidence in his own Govt at the same time…

@sfca_info @varndean @BHASVIC @ucu

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... But want to highlight campaign standing up for young people & BTECs - colleges in #Brighton & #Hove point to the success of BTECs & worry that removing funding for the majority of BTEC qualifications would be a serious and harmful mistake not least because disadvantaged

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Young people are amongst those with the most to lose – as the Government’s own equalities impact assessment makes clear, stating:

“those from SEND backgrounds, Asian ethnic groups, disadvantaged backgrounds, and males [are] disproportionately likely to be affected”

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Ministers must stop ignoring their own evidence and abandon their plan to cut BTEC funding.

T-levels have a place - educationalists are telling Ministers that T-levels are a welcome development - but…

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They should sit alongside, rather than replace, BTECs as they are a different type of qualification and experience

The scrapping of BTECs is a short-sighted narrowing of options for our young people’s post-16 choices - the opposite of what 'levelling up' should mean

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The Sixth Forms and further education colleges in my constituency point out that applied general qualifications such as BTECs have transformed the life chances of thousands of their students, and made a huge contribution to both social mobility and the local economy

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We must stand up for BTECs as an engine of social mobility - a quarter of students now enter university with BTEC qualifications, and that they are likelier to be from disadvantaged backgrounds, with the vast majority completing their studies successfully

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The plan to defund BTECs needs to be stopped in its tracks to protect fairness, and keep opportunities open for our young people at 16 - in short, to #ProtectStudentChoice

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@varndean @BHASVIC @SFCA_info