Level 3 reform: Ministers must step back from the precipice

Cast your mind back to the 18^th of July this year, when temperatures hit 40 degrees and ministerial jobs at the department for education were available on a seasonal basis.

In a sweltering Westminster Hall, then-skills minister, Andrea Jenkyns, was responding to the parliamentary debate triggered by the Protect Student Choice: don’t scrap BTECs campaign petition which had secured 108,000 signatures.

After MPs from all parties had expressed deep concerns about the government’s proposals for level 3 qualifications, the minister implemented the department’s well-established standard operating procedure for this policy area.