The DfE has released data about entrants to ‘T Level’ courses starting in 2025. T Level and T Level foundation year entrant data 2025 to 2026 – GOV.UK

What is striking about the data are the gender disparities between different courses, and how much work among this group of young people and their families may still need to be undertaken if stereotypes are to be confronted.

For instance, 95.6% of those starting the Education and Early Years course were female, whereas 96.9% of those starting the Building Services Engineering for Construction course were males. Males also dominated the three digital courses, whereas the craft and design course participants were 90.4% female. Males made up two thirds of the Agriculture Land Management and Production, but only 19.7% of the Animal care and Management

There was more parity in courses such as Media Broadcast and Production, the Science courses and, interestingly, the overall total ended up 49.3% female and 50.7% male!

The DfE note that 27,446 learners started T Levels in the 2025 to 2026 academic year, up from 25,508 in the 2024 to 2025 academic year. This represents a 7.6% increase in entrant numbers. From the time series data, it looks as if more women are now taking these qualifications.

Table 3: T Level entrants split by T Level pathway and legal sex, 2024 to 2025 academic year

Route	Pathway	Female	Male
Agriculture Environmental and Animal Care	Agriculture Land Management and Production	35.8%	64.2%
Agriculture Environmental and Animal Care	Animal care and Management	80.3%	19.7%
Business and Administration	Management and Administration	42.7%	57.3%
Construction	Building Services Engineering for Construction	3.1%	96.9%
Construction	Design Surveying and Planning for Construction	17.5%	82.5%
Construction	Onsite Construction (discontinued)	6.9%	93.1%
Creative and Design	Craft and Design	90.4%	9.6%
Creative and Design	Media Broadcast and Production	43.8%	56.2%
Digital	Digital Data Analytics (formerly Digital Business Services)	12.9%	87.1%
Digital	Digital Software Development (formerly Digital Production Design and Development)	12.0%	88.0%
Digital	Digital Support and Security (formerly Digital Support Services)	8.0%	92.0%
Education and Early Years	Education and Early Years	95.6%	4.4%
Engineering and Manufacturing	Design and Development for Engineering and Manufacturing	9.2%	90.8%
Engineering and Manufacturing	Engineering Manufacturing Processing and Control	12.0%	88.0%
Engineering and Manufacturing	Maintenance Installation and Repair for Engineering and Manufacturing	9.7%	90.3%
Health and Science	Health	91.8%	8.2%
Health and Science	Science	53.4%	46.6%
Health and Science	Healthcare Science	72.1%	27.9%
Legal Finance and Accounting	Accounting	34.5%	65.5%
Legal Finance and Accounting	Finance	22.6%	77.4%
Legal Finance and Accounting	Legal Services	64.6%	35.4%
Total		49.3%	50.7%

There are now going to be ‘V Levels’ to add to the mix of qualifications that young people can study for after the age of sixteen. Should we be more worried about the gender split in courses more closely linked to careers than for academic subjects, or doesn’t it matter at all?  

Personally, after thirty years of trying to change attitudes to career choices, I find this data somewhat disheartening, especially as the majority of classroom teachers in secondary schools are now women. It seems as if teachers cannot override stereotyping, and we need to do more careers and work experience to challenge entrenched attitudes.