Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 24
24
Accepted
Paragraph: 89
Lack of T Level industry placement forecast threatens the programme's successful rollout.
Conclusion
The Department has not published its own forecast of the number of industry placements that might be required once T Levels are fully rolled out. A clear acknowledgement of the scale of the challenge is needed, particularly as we have heard that the numbers of T Level placements required could reach 250,000, with up to 43,500 placements needed in the engineering and manufacturing sector alone by 2025. The sheer scale of this undertaking poses a threat to the success of T Levels, which rests on the availability of sufficient high-quality placements.
Government Response Summary
The government states it has previously published industry placement demand estimates and is committed to ensuring sufficient high-quality placements, citing £181 million in capital funding, the Employer Support Fund, and the Employer Engagement Programme. It also continually monitors supply and demand and has commissioned a learner survey.
Paragraph Reference:
89
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Department has previously published estimates of industry placement demand and we are committed to ensuring there are enough high-quality industry placements available for all T Level students. To ensure this, we are continuing to fund and support providers to engage with employers to deliver industry placements. We provided £181 million in Capital Funding to providers to upgrade and refurbish their facilities to deliver T Levels between 2020–21 and 2022–23. We continue to fund the Employer Support Fund, a £12m fund which launched earlier this year to compensate employers for costs incurred when delivering an industry placement. It is hoped that providing compensation for these costs will enable providers to build relationships with employers and for them to realise the long-term benefits of the programme. We continue to fund the Employer Engagement Programme, which helps providers engage with employers and source placements at scale. To date, this programme has supported providers to source over 18,000 industry placements. We are working closely with providers and employers to understand their needs and challenges and to develop solutions that will support the delivery of industry placements. We have produced a range of guidance and resources to support providers and employers in delivering high-quality industry placements. These include: • The Industry Placement Delivery Guidance which provides information on planning, delivery and monitoring of industry placements, • The T Levels and Industry Placement Support for Employers website, which provides information and guidance specifically for employers. We also continue to monitor the supply and demand of industry placements to ensure that there are enough placements available for all T Level students. We have commissioned a technical education learner survey that will track the destinations and experiences of T Level students, the T Level Transition Programme comparison cohort, the first three Transition Programme cohorts, and Level 4/5 technical learners. The results of the 2021 survey are published at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/technical-education-learner-survey. We also plan to evaluate all placement delivery approaches (including hybrid/remote working) to understand how the models are used and the quality to placements these bring. We are continually monitoring all allowable delivery models to ensure the needs of the programme are met.