Defunded, Not Derailed: Mixed Study Programmes for 2026 | Episode Four

As qualification reform continues to reshape Level 3 provision, one of the most affected, and fastest-moving, areas is computing, IT and cyber security.

With large applied qualifications being phased out and new pathways including V Levels coming into play, colleges delivering digital provision face a pressing question: how do you design programmes that keep pace with both reform timelines and an industry that evolves by the month?

Episode Four of the Cambridge OCR x FE News Live Show tackled this head-on. The session brought together Cambridge OCR Subject Advisor Vinay Thawait and FE News CEO Gavin O’Meara alongside two college practitioners, Aman Purewal from Coventry College and Kris Hyde from Callywith College, to explore the options available and how colleges are responding.

What’s changing?

The defunding of larger Level 3 qualifications has significant implications for computing, IT and cyber security pathways. Many colleges have historically relied on large applied qualifications to deliver broad digital programmes. With those routes narrowing, providers must now look at how smaller qualifications, mixed study programmes, and the recently announced V Levels can be combined to maintain breadth while ensuring learners still have clear progression into university, apprenticeships, or employment.

Digital skills sit at the heart of employer demand across virtually every sector. Software development, data analysis, cyber security and networking are all areas of acute skills need, and colleges play a central role in feeding that pipeline.

What the episode covered

The session built on the curriculum planning principles explored earlier in the series, applying them specifically to digital provision. Discussion focused on the practical considerations colleges face when reviewing computing, IT and cyber security programmes: balancing technical knowledge with practical skills, maintaining academic progression routes, and keeping curriculum aligned with an industry where the pace of change is relentless.

Guests also explored how emerging qualifications, including V Levels, could shape digital pathways going forward, and what employers actually expect from learners entering the sector.

Building on the series

Episode Four built on the foundations laid across the first three instalments, which covered the broader qualification reform landscape, curriculum planning approaches, and science provision. This session applied those same principles to a high-growth sector where the stakes, and the speed of change, are particularly high.

Watch the episode

You can watch the full episode back now. This is the fourth instalment in a six-part series produced in partnership with Cambridge OCR, examining how colleges can navigate qualification reform across different subject areas.