The Protect Student Choice campaign concluded in March 2026 after the government agreed to pause the defunding of applied general qualifications such as BTECs. This was the third pause to defunding secured by the campaign since its launch in 2021. As a result of these pauses, at least 300,000 16- to 19-year-olds have either already studied qualifications that would otherwise have been scrapped, or will be studying them in coming years. Retaining applied general qualifications has enabled many of these young people to progress to higher education and/or skilled employment - a journey that would otherwise have been out of reach - and avoided the creation of a ‘qualifications gap’ that tens of thousands of students would have fallen through.  

The Protect Student Choice coalition of 27 organisations (co-ordinated by the Sixth Form Colleges Association) was able to leverage the collective strength of colleges and schools, universities and employers, and a cross-party group of parliamentarians to successfully make the case to retain BTECs for as long as possible. Qualifications such as the extended diploma in Health and Social Care that were originally due to have funding withdrawn in July 2024 will now not have funding withdrawn until July 2028 - an extension of four years. And the government has also accepted the campaign’s call to retain the current three route system of academic, applied and technical courses in the future qualifications landscape. 

The campaign coalition will continue to work together in an informal way to influence the design and rollout of V levels. This editorial in The Guardian, which marked the conclusion of the campaign, highlights some of the key issues with V levels that are important to address. 

Our thanks go to all the individuals and organisations that have supported #ProtectStudentChoice since 2021 - our united front has transformed the life chances of more than 300,000 young people. 

We need the support of school and college leaders, governors, students, parents, teachers and support staff to make the campaign a success.  There are lots of ways to get involved, for example:

• Write to your local MPs to secure their support for the campaign (a full list of MPs is here and a template letter is here)
• Invite local MPs to your school or college
• School and college leaders can write to parents to secure their support for the campaign
• Tweet support for the campaign using the logo and #protectstudentchoice
• Take photographs using the campaign logo and share on social media

For more information about getting involved email us at info@protectstudentchoice.org.