📚 Post-16 Level 3 Qualification Funding Approval Arrangements for 2025/26 | 2025至2026学年16岁后第三级资格证书资助审批安排
The 2025 to 2026 academic year marks one of the most significant transition points in the reform of post-16 education in England. Which Level 3 qualifications a school or college may use public 16 to 19 funding to deliver depends on a formal approval decision made by the Department for Education (DfE), separate from the regulator's decision to allow a qualification to be offered at all. Understanding the difference between regulation, approval and funding is essential for anyone planning a Level 3 study programme in 2025/26.
2025至2026学年是英格兰16岁后教育改革中最关键的转折点之一。学校或学院能否使用公立的16至19岁资助来开设某一门第三级资格证书，取决于英国教育部（DfE）作出的正式审批决定，而这与监管机构允许该资格证书是否存在是完全不同的两件事。对于任何计划在2025/26学年修读第三级课程的人来说，理解监管、审批与资助三者之间的区别至关重要。
1. What the 2025/26 Approval Cycle Covers | 2025/26学年资助审批涵盖什么
Funding approval is a permission, not a prohibition. A qualification that is not approved for funding is not banned, not withdrawn from the register and not necessarily of poor quality. It simply means that a state-funded provider in England cannot count the qualification towards a 16 to 19 study programme funded through the national 16 to 19 funding formula. Providers may still teach it if another funding source covers it, or if learners or their families pay privately.
资助审批是一种许可，而不是禁令。未获资助审批的资格证书并没有被取缔，也没有从证书注册系统中撤销，更不一定质量低劣。它仅仅意味着，英格兰的公立资助机构不能将该资格证书计入由国家16至19岁资助公式拨款的16至19岁学习计划。如果存在其他资金来源，或者学生及其家庭自费，机构仍然可以开设该课程。
The 2025/26 cycle covers four distinct questions. First, which qualifications are approved for teaching to 16 to 19 year olds at Level 3. Second, which of those approved qualifications attract 16 to 19 funding in a study programme. Third, how existing learners who started earlier are protected during the transition. Fourth, how the same qualifications are treated for adult learners aged 19 and over, who are funded through separate adult skills arrangements.
2025/26学年的审批周期涵盖四个不同的问题。第一，哪些第三级资格证书获准向16至19岁的学生开设。第二，在这些获准开设的资格证书中，哪些可以在学习计划中获得16至19岁资助。第三，此前已经入学的在读学生如何在过渡期间受到保护。第四，同一批资格证书对于19岁及以上的成年学习者如何处理，因为成年学习者的资助走的是另一套成人技能资助体系。
A useful way to remember the structure is the three-layer model:
记住这一结构的一个有效方法是"三层模型"：
Regulation (Ofqual) → Approval (DfE) → Funding (16 to 19 funding formula)
Each layer answers a different question: may this qualification exist and be awarded? May it be taught to publicly funded 16 to 19 learners? Will the provider actually be paid for delivering it?
每一层回答的是不同的问题：该资格证书是否可以存在并被颁发？是否可以向接受公共资助的16至19岁学生开设？机构实际交付该课程时是否能够获得拨款？
2. Policy Background: The Level 3 and Below Review | 政策背景：第三级及以下资格证书审查
The current arrangements are the product of a long-running review of post-16 qualifications at Level 3 and below in England, launched in 2019 with consultations running through 2020, 2021 and 2022. The stated aims were to simplify an overcrowded qualification market, to reduce duplication between qualifications that serve the same purpose, and to ensure that every publicly funded Level 3 qualification has a clear progression route into skilled employment, an apprenticeship or higher education.
现行安排源自英格兰自2019年启动、并在2020年、2021年和2022年持续开展公众咨询的"16岁后第三级及以下资格证书审查"。官方陈述的目标是：简化过度拥挤的资格证书市场，减少功能重复的资格证书之间的重叠，并确保每一门获得公共资助的第三级资格证书都有清晰的升学或就业路径——通向技术性就业、学徒制或高等教育。
The reform model rests on a small number of anchor qualifications. A Levels remain the primary academic route. T Levels were introduced as the primary technical route, developed with employers and including a substantial industry placement. Alongside these, the DfE created a third category for cases where neither A Levels nor T Levels meet a genuine need: Alternative Academic Qualifications (AAQs) in academic subjects, and approved technical qualifications in occupational areas.
这一改革模式建立在少数几类"锚定资格证书"之上。A Level仍然是主要的学术路径。T Level作为主要的技术路径被引入，由雇主参与开发，并包含一段较长的行业实习。在此之外，教育部设立了第三类资格证书，用于应对A Level和T Level都无法满足真实需求的领域：学术科目中的"替代学术资格"（AAQ），以及职业领域中的获批准技术资格证书。
Because the timetable has been adjusted more than once — including pauses affecting qualifications previously scheduled for removal from funding — the only reliable source of truth for any given academic year is the list that the DfE publishes for that year. The 2025/26 position was also considered in the light of the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, which reported during 2025 and which may influence later phases of the reform.
由于时间表曾多次调整——包括对原定取消资助的部分资格证书实行暂停——对于任何特定学年而言，唯一可靠的依据是教育部为该学年公布的清单。2025/26学年的安排也参考了独立进行的"课程与评估审查"（Curriculum and Assessment Review），该审查于2025年提交报告，并可能影响改革的后续阶段。
3. The Legal and Funding Framework | 法律与资助框架
The legal basis for public funding of qualifications for learners under 19 in England is Section 96 of the Learning and Skills Act 2000. A qualification must be approved under Section 96 before a state-funded provider can use public funds to deliver it to a learner of compulsory school age or aged 16 to 18. This is why the terms "Section 96 approval" and "approved for funding" appear alongside each other in official documents.
英格兰19岁以下学习者资格证书公共资助的法律基础是《2000年学习与技能法》第96条。在公立资助机构使用公共资金向义务教育年龄段或16至18岁的学习者开设某一资格证书之前，该资格证书必须根据第96条获得批准。这就是官方文件中"第96条批准"与"获资助批准"常常同时出现的原因。
Once approved, the qualification becomes eligible to be counted in the 16 to 19 funding formula. Providers are funded per student, not per qualification, using a national funding rate adjusted by programme cost weighting, disadvantage uplift and area cost allowance. A simplified representation of the national formula is:
一旦获得批准，该资格证书即可被计入16至19岁资助公式。拨款是按学生而非按资格证书计算，采用国家资助标准费率，并根据课程成本权重、弱势群体加成和地区成本补贴进行调整。国家资助公式的简化表达如下：
tional Funding Rate × Programme Cost Weighting × Disadvantage Uplift × Area Cost Allowance
The crucial implication is this: if a qualification loses funding approval, the provider does not automatically lose the student's place funding. What it loses is the ability to count that particular qualification as the substantive core of the study programme. The provider must then substitute an approved qualification of comparable size and purpose.
关键的推论是：如果某一资格证书失去资助审批，机构并不会自动失去该学生的学位拨款。真正失去的是把该资格证书作为整个学习计划实质核心来计数的资格。机构必须改用一门规模与用途相当的、已获批准的资格证书作为替代。
Different rules apply in three situations worth distinguishing clearly: learners aged 19 and over funded through adult skills arrangements; learners in independent schools, where funding approval is largely irrelevant because provision is not state funded; and learners outside England, where devolved administrations operate their own frameworks and do not follow DfE funding lists.
有三种情况适用不同规则，值得清楚区分：通过成人技能资助体系获得资助的19岁及以上学习者；就读于独立学校的学习者，对他们而言资助审批基本无关紧要，因为课程并非由国家资助；以及英格兰以外的学习者，因为权力下放的地区政府运行自己的框架，并不遵循教育部的资助清单。
4. Who the Arrangements Apply To | 适用对象
The arrangements apply directly to state-funded schools and colleges in England with sixth forms, including maintained schools, academies, free schools, general further education colleges, sixth form colleges and designated institutions. They also apply to independent training providers and other organisations that hold a 16 to 19 funding contract or a subcontract with a funded provider.
这些安排直接适用于英格兰设有高中部的公立资助学校与学院，包括公立学校、学院制学校（academies）、自由学校、普通继续教育学院、预科学院和指定机构。它们同样适用于持有16至19岁资助合同、或与受资助机构签订分包合同的独立培训提供者及其他组织。
They do not, as a general rule, apply to independent schools that are not in receipt of state 16 to 19 funding, to international schools outside the United Kingdom, or to private tuition and private course providers. This distinction matters greatly to international families, because a qualification can disappear from a school's sixth form for commercial reasons — the awarding organisation withdrawing it, or the school deciding it is no longer viable — without any change at all to the DfE funding list.
一般规则下，这些安排不适用于未获得国家16至19岁资助的独立学校、英国境外的国际学校，以及私人家教与私人课程机构。这一区分对国际家庭尤其重要，因为一门资格证书可能因商业原因从学校的高中部消失——例如颁证机构将其撤回，或学校认为已不再可行——而教育部的资助清单却毫无变化。
Learners with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan may continue to be funded up to age 25. For these learners, the same approval list governs which Level 3 qualifications can be included in a funded programme, although providers have more flexibility in constructing a programme around individual needs.
持有"教育、健康与照护计划"（EHC计划）的学习者可以获得资助直至25岁。对这些学习者而言，同样的审批清单决定了哪些第三级资格证书可以纳入资助课程，不过机构在围绕个体需求设计课程时拥有更大的灵活性。
5. Key Dates and the Rhythm of the Cycle | 关键时间节点与周期节奏
Funding approval decisions take effect from 1 August at the start of the academic year. This means that the arrangements described as applying "in 2025/26" come into force on 1 August 2025 and run until 31 July 2026. Publication of the approved list, however, happens considerably earlier, typically 12 to 24 months in advance, so that schools and colleges can plan recruitment, staffing and prospectuses.
资助审批决定自学年开始之日即8月1日起生效。这意味着被描述为"2025/26学年适用"的安排于2025年8月1日生效，并持续至2026年7月31日。但获批准清单的公布时间要早得多，通常提前12至24个月，以便学校与学院规划招生、师资与招生简章。
The practical sequence for providers in any given year looks like this:
任何一年中，机构实际经历的流程大致如下：
Autumn and winter: awarding organisations submit qualifications for approval, and the DfE publishes or updates the list of qualifications approved for funding in the following academic year.
秋冬两季：颁证机构提交资格证书申请审批，教育部公布或更新下一学年的获资助资格证书清单。
Spring: providers check the list against their planned curriculum offer, confirm which qualifications will be withdrawn, and adjust option blocks for the following September.
春季：机构将清单与计划开设的课程进行比对，确认哪些资格证书将被取消，并调整当年9月的选课模块。
Summer and early autumn: the new funding rules take effect from 1 August, and enrolment must be consistent with the approved list.
夏季及早秋：新的资助规则自8月1日起生效，注册入学必须与获批准清单保持一致。
Autumn and winter: the cycle repeats for the following academic year, with any newly announced pauses or extensions taken into account.
秋冬两季：针对下一学年的周期再次启动，同时考虑新公布的暂停或延期安排。
Because dates have moved before, the safest habit is to treat any fixed date as provisional until it appears in the current DfE funding guidance for the year in question.
由于日期此前曾被调整过，最稳妥的习惯是：在任何固定日期出现在当年度现行教育部资助指南之前，都把它视为暂定安排。
6. What the Approval Criteria Actually Require | 审批标准的实际要求
Approval is not automatic. A qualification must demonstrate a genuine need that is not already met by an A Level, a T Level or another approved qualification in the same route. The DfE assesses this against a published set of criteria, and awarding organisations must supply evidence, including employer support where the qualification is occupational in nature.
获批并非自动获得。一门资格证书必须证明存在尚未被同一路径中的A Level、T Level或其他已获批准资格证书所满足的真实需求。教育部依据一套公开发布的标准进行评估，颁证机构必须提供证据，对于职业性质的资格证书还须提供雇主支持证据。
In broad terms, the criteria cluster around the following tests:
总体而言，这些标准围绕以下几项检验展开：
Purpose and necessity: does the qualification serve a distinct progression purpose, and is that purpose already served by an anchor qualification?
目的与必要性：该资格证书是否服务于明确的升学或就业目的？该目的是否已由某一"锚定资格证书"实现？
Size and substance: is the qualification large enough and substantial enough to form part of a coherent study programme, typically measured in guided learning hours (GLH)?
规模与实质：该资格证书的规模与内容是否足以构成连贯学习计划的一部分，通常以"指导学习时数"（GLH）衡量？
Quality and validity: is the assessment valid, reliable and appropriately demanding for Level 3?
质量与效度：其评估方式对第三级而言是否有效、可靠且难度适当？
Progression and destination: do learners who complete it progress into skilled employment, an apprenticeship, or higher education?
升学与去向：完成该资格证书的学习者是否能够进入技术性就业、学徒制或高等教育？
Employer and sector support, for technical and occupational qualifications.
对于技术与职业类资格证书，是否具有雇主与行业的支持。
Where a qualification fails the test, funding approval is not granted or is withdrawn. Awarding organisations may normally appeal a decision through the published appeals process, and outcomes of appeals can change the final list.
如果某一资格证书未通过检验，则不予批准资助或撤销资助审批。颁证机构通常可以通过公开的申诉程序对决定提出申诉，而申诉结果可能改变最终清单。
7. Qualification Categories and Their Funding Status | 资格证书类别与资助状态
The following table summarises how the main categories of Level 3 qualification are treated for 16 to 19 funding purposes in 2025/26. It is a summary of the framework, not a substitute for the official list, which names individual qualifications.
下表总结了2025/26学年主要第三级资格证书类别在16至19岁资助中的处理方式。这是对框架的概括，不能替代列明具体资格证书名称
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