Part 1: Skills and Education for Work Chapter 2: Technical Education Qualifications, Apprenticeships, etc
This chapter extends and refines the existing statutory framework for the approval and regulation of technical education qualifications. The sections introduce new functions for the Institute to support reforms set out in the Post-16 Qualifications Review and the white paper. The functions enable the Institute to approve a broader range of technical education qualifications by introducing a new approval scheme alongside the existing scheme, where qualifications approved under the existing scheme can lead to the issue of a technical education certificate under section A3A of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act (ASCL 2009) and qualifications approved under the new scheme do not. The functions also require the Institute to keep under review the education and training within its remit to ensure the overall coherence of the system. These sections embed the collaborative relationship between Ofqual and the Institute in exercising their respective functions in relation to technical education qualifications.
	The sections amend ASCL 2009. That Act was amended by the Deregulation Act 2015 (in relation to the approved English apprenticeships reforms) and the Enterprise Act 2016 (to, among other things, establish the Institute). The Institute was established in April 2017 with apprenticeships functions. The Technical and Further Education Act 2017 then further amended ASCL 2009 to extend the Institute’s remit to include technical education.
	The final section in this chapter requires maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England to give education and training providers access to pupils on at least two occasions during each of the first, second and third key phases of their education, to inform the pupils about approved technical education qualifications or apprenticeships.