Sixteen qualifications that train teaching assistants lose their public funding from August 2027. The four-year plan for what replaces them never names the subject once.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
In short. The Department for Education's post-16 pathways implementation plan sets out a staged principle for cutting funding to old qualifications: remove it "at level 3, below 1,080 guided learning hours once a V Level is available... in the same specific sector or subject as the qualifications funding being removed" [2]. Its own four-year rollout table, covering 2027 to 2031, never lists Direct Learning Support, the subject area covering teaching-assistant training, against any V Level, T Level, Occupational Certificate or Foundation Certificate. Sixteen Direct Learning Support qualifications lose their 16 to 19 funding anyway, from 1 August 2027, alongside 132 others across digital, accounting, child development and teaching subjects [3]. One documented mistake: four stars.
A school in England that wants to train a classroom assistant currently has a straightforward option: enrol them on a course such as the NCFE CACHE Level 2 Certificate in Supporting Teaching and Learning, or the City & Guilds Level 3 Diploma in Specialist Support for Teaching and Learning in Schools. Both, and fourteen others like them, appear on the Department for Education's own list of qualifications losing their 16 to 19 funding approval from 1 August 2027, filed under the sector subject area "Direct learning support" [3]. The department's guidance page confirms the date is real: "The government has already confirmed that public funding approval for certain qualifications will be removed from 2027, following its response to the Post-16 level 3 and below pathways consultation" [1]. This is not a niche adult-education change: the department's own equalities impact assessment for the reform found that "80% of enrolments in level 3 vocational and technical qualifications are by learners aged 16 to 19, compared to 93% for all level 3" [4], meaning almost all of the students affected are still in mainstream school or college sixth forms, not adults topping up a qualification later in life.
A rule the department set for itself, then did not apply everywhere
The reform replacing these qualifications is real and already under way. V Levels, a new applied-learning qualification alongside A Levels and T Levels, begin teaching in September 2027, alongside new level 2 Occupational Certificates and Foundation Certificates [2]. The implementation plan is explicit that funding removal is meant to track this rollout, subject by subject, not arrive ahead of it. Its own timetable states that from the 2028 to 2029 academic year onwards, funding approvals will be removed "at level 2, when planned Occupational Certificates and Foundation Certificates both come on stream" and "at level 3, below 1,080 guided learning hours once a V Level is available... in the same specific sector or subject as the qualifications funding being removed" [2]. Wait for the replacement, then cut the old course. Digital gets an explicit example of the rule working as designed: large digital qualifications keep their funding for an extra year, to 2028, "to support providers with the transition, until additional V Levels are available" [1].
The 2027 removals do not wait for that same test everywhere. The plan's own words: "funding approval will be removed from the majority of legacy vocational and technical level 2 and 3 qualifications in Child Development and Wellbeing, Teaching and Lecturing, and Direct Learning Support sector subject areas" [2], alongside digital and accounting and finance, all from 1 August 2027. The plan's own rollout table, read across all four published years, names an Occupational Certificate in "Education and early years", titled Early years practitioner, launching in that same September 2027 window, a reasonable match for much of what Child Development and Wellbeing currently covers. No equivalent entry exists anywhere in the table for Teaching and Lecturing or Direct Learning Support, in 2027, 2028, 2029 or 2030. The subject area that trains people to support a class of children loses its funding on the same date as digital and accounting, without the successor either of those two subjects was promised.
What is actually on offer instead
The nearest qualification type launching in 2027 that could plausibly cover the gap is a V Level in Education. The plan is direct about what a V Level is for, and is not: "V Levels will not provide occupational competence. Students who wish to develop occupational entry competence should consider a T Level or level 2 Occupational Certificate" [2]. That is precisely what the Direct Learning Support qualifications being defunded currently supply: occupational competence to work as a teaching assistant or classroom support worker, not a broad introduction to the education sector. A 16 year old who wants that specific route into a school support role from September 2027 has, on this document's own account, no named V Level, T Level, Occupational Certificate or Foundation Certificate that provides it, this year or in any of the following three the plan sets out.
Funding removal only applies to new starters, not students already partway through a course; the plan is explicit that "those already enrolled in a qualification will continue to be funded" [2]. That protects current learners. It does not answer what a school or college is meant to enrol a new 16 or 17 year old on, from September 2027, if they specifically want to train as a teaching assistant.
Credit where due
The reform is not being rushed through carelessly everywhere. The department ran a genuinely wide consultation before settling this timetable, and where a gap was identified for digital, it built in an extra year rather than leaving providers to find out the hard way. Large legacy creative and design qualifications were deliberately delayed from a 2029 to a 2030 rollout so that the reformed T Level and V Level offer in that sector could be introduced together rather than piecemeal. The international baccalaureate, Core Maths, extended project qualifications, advanced extension awards and the performing arts graded examinations all keep their funding outright. Access to HE Diplomas, including the routes into teaching that appear on the same defunding list, are protected for students aged 18 and above through advanced learner loans, with the outstanding balance written off on completion of an eligible degree. None of that changes the specific position of Direct Learning Support and Teaching and Lecturing, the two subject areas the plan itself never once matches to a named successor.
The claims, tested
| The claim | What the evidence shows | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Funding removal from 2027 is staged so that, at level 3, it happens "once a V Level is available... in the same specific sector or subject as the qualifications funding being removed" [2] | The same document's own four-year rollout table, 2027 to 2031, never lists a V Level, T Level, Occupational Certificate or Foundation Certificate against Teaching and Lecturing or Direct Learning Support | The staged principle is not applied to these two subject areas; their funding is removed on the general 2027 date regardless |
| Digital qualifications keep funding to 2028 "until additional V Levels are available" [1] | No equivalent extension is recorded anywhere in either document for Direct Learning Support, despite the same absence of a named successor | Digital's documented gap was given an extra year; Direct Learning Support's undocumented gap was not |
One documented mistake. The implementation plan states its own principle for removing funding from old qualifications: wait until a V Level, T Level or Occupational Certificate exists in the same subject. Its own rollout table, covering all four published years to 2030 to 2031, never names a successor for Direct Learning Support, the subject area covering teaching-assistant training, or for Teaching and Lecturing. Sixteen Direct Learning Support qualifications lose their 16 to 19 funding from 1 August 2027 regardless, on the department's own published list. Rated four stars out of five.
Sources
- Level 2 and 3 qualifications to have 16 to 19 funding approval removed in 2027 (GOV.UK guidance, Department for Education, published 10 March 2026, updated 17 September 2026)
- Post-16 pathways: implementation plan (GOV.UK, Department for Education, published 20 May 2026, updated 17 September 2026)
- Level 2 and 3 qualifications to have 16-19 funding approval removed from 1 August 2027 (spreadsheet, Department for Education)
- Post-16 level 3 and below pathways: equality impact assessment (PDF, Department for Education)