In a letter from the Department for Education, the British Beauty Council has learnt that the launch of the new Hairdressing, Barbering and Beauty T Level will be pushed back by a year. The post-16 course will be available to students by at least September 2024
The qualification, which has been formulated alongside industry businesses, stakeholders – including the British Beauty Council – and awarding organisations, is designed to offer young people an alternative to A-Levels.
Originally planned to start in six months, at the start of the next academic year, the qualification will now launch next year. Sue Lovelock, Director of Professional & Technical Education at the Department for Education says: ‘I know that this will be disappointing and that this will have an impact on you as providers and on your potential students. We have taken this decision to protect the quality of T Levels and to ensure that T Levels continue to lead to great outcomes for all students.’
The decision has been taken jointly between IfATE and the Department for Education, in consultation with Ofqual and the relevant awarding organisations.
Spanning two years, the Hairdressing, Barbering and Beauty T Level educates young people on the broad skills needed to enter the sector, such as safe working practices and business context. Students will also specialise in occupation-specific content relating to hairdressing, make-up artistry and beauty therapy.
The new course is designed to appeal to those who prefer to learn outside of the classroom, with 20% of timetabled learning set to be completed in the workplace. The remaining 80% of the programme is taught in the classroom.
‘There is more work for awarding organisations to do before IfATE and Ofqual can be clear that (the Hairdressing, Barbering and Beauty) T Level (is) capable of meeting the high-quality bar required by both organisations to enable them to be taken into delivery, and that will not be possible in time for launch this September,’ continues Lovelock, before saying: ‘We are determined to focus above all on the quality of T Levels… I hope that you can draw confidence from the fact that we will only approve T Levels where we are sure that they will provide students with a very high-quality qualification that supports them as that is a great first step to a rewarding career.’
Some students will have already enrolled on the T-Level in preparation for September 2023, these students will now have to pursue other options or take part in a year-long ‘T Level Transition Programme’. This preparation course will help students to develop and fine-tune their English and maths, practical, technical and study skills before commencing their qualification.
To find out more about the T Level in Hairdressing, Barbering and Beauty, click here.
Interested in a career in beauty industry? Check out the British Beauty Council’s Future Talent Programme.
