The ^122,124,126Te(³He, alpha )^121,123,125Te reactions have been studied at incident energies of about 20 MeV. The low-lying levels in ¹²³Te have also been investigated with the ¹²⁴Te(d,t) reaction at E_d approximately=10 MeV. Angular distributions have been analysed using DWBA calculations. The spectroscopic information obtained is compared with pairing-theory predictions and calculations based on the particle-phonon coupling scheme.