The Explorer covers four qualification families. They serve different purposes, are counted separately, and each has its own denominator.
| Family | What it contains | Institutions | Entries |
|---|---|---|---|
| A level | GCE A level only. AS level is excluded. | 2,626 | 787,688 |
| Applied General | BTEC Nationals, OCR Cambridge Technicals, Level 3 VRQs — broad applied study supporting progression to higher education. | 2,084 | 230,713 |
| Tech Level | Occupationally specific Level 3 qualifications — engineering, construction, hair and beauty, land-based. | 855 | 29,745 |
| Other academic | Extended Project, Core Maths, International Baccalaureate, Pre-U, Advanced Extension Award. | 2,223 | 92,463 |
Because their denominators differ. 2,626 institutions have A-level entries; 855 have Tech Level entries. A percentage calculated against the wrong base is meaningless, so the Explorer switches denominator when you switch family and prints it beside every figure.
The same subject appears at several qualification sizes — Business shows up as a BTEC Extended Certificate, a Diploma and an Extended Diploma. Subject lines roll every size together so an institution is counted once per subject rather than three times. Each subject profile shows the size breakdown, where institution counts overlap because one institution may enter students at more than one size.
These are DfE reporting categories and may not correspond directly to individual course titles. “Sports Studies” covers many differently-named qualifications from several awarding bodies. The most striking case is Study Skills, which is overwhelmingly the Extended Project Qualification — accurate as a category, thoroughly misleading as a course name.
Tech Level is the DfE performance-table category for approved Level 3 vocational and technical qualifications — VRQs, and BTEC and Cambridge Technical variants classed as tech level. It is what this Explorer measures.
T Levels are a separate qualification family introduced from 2020. They do not appear in this DfE release at all, and none of the entry figures in this Explorer include them. They are covered instead on the Explorer’s own T Levels tab, from a separate DfE collection and with their own measures.
The exam-cohort categories in the source are A level, Applied general, Other academic, Tech level and Technical certificate. T Level results are published as separate provider-level statistics. The Explorer carries them on a separate tab with their own measures — providers, pathways and students with results — rather than folding them into the exam-entry method used here. They are never converted to A-level equivalents and never added to an entry total.
AS level (58,040 entries in 1,707 institutions) and Technical certificate at Level 2 (10,223 entries in 235 institutions) are in the source but outside this build’s scope. T Levels are not in the source at all, and are handled separately on the Explorer’s T Levels tab.
So whenever this Explorer reports a share of volume, it means qualification volume in A-level equivalents across the four families included here. It is not a share of all post-16 study in England, and should not be quoted as one.
Last checked 17 August 2026. Observed provision is based on recorded exam entries. An institution with no recorded entries in a subject may still have offered it — see what subject provision means.