Professions struggling with staff shortages may suffer if BTec funding withdrawn, say vice-chancellors
The government’s planned cull of technical qualifications could prevent thousands of working-class students going to university to train to be nurses or work in health and social care, just as these professions are struggling with severe staff shortages, vice-chancellors say.
New data from the university admissions service Ucas shows that this year more than 25,000 students who accepted places on social care degrees or subjects allied to medicine had studied a BTec, a qualification the government intends to drop as part of its new skills and post-16 education bill, to be debated in the House of Commons on Monday.
