After years of vocational training unfairly bearing a 2nd class mantel, T-levels need a massive aspirational marketing strategy
As predicted by many further education bodies, the Apprenticeship and Skills Minister Anne Milton has announced that the T-level courses which were expected to launch in February 2019 will not be ready in time, and have now been delayed to 2020.
Further education experts warned early in the process that the deadlines were unviable because T-levels would require a great deal of detailed planning if they are to fulfil their role as the new qualification for a new era.
Your reputation precedes you
However, the problem runs much deeper than course logistics: the take-up success of the new T-levels will depend on a massive cultural shift in favour of vocational qualifications. After decades of vocational training unfairly bearing a 2nd class mantel, T-levels will require a massive national and aspirational marketing strategy that goes far beyond the quality of a course.
David Hughes of the Association of Colleges points out that, “we also collectively need to challenge the snobbery and unfairness which goes well beyond the education system” (FE Week).
The solution to the UK skills gap
The T-levels are intended to be a set of 15 streamlined qualifications to standardise vocational course provision and outcomes for post-16 students. Whilst Justine Greening insists that the T-levels (to be delivered primarily through apprenticeships) would raise the status of vocational qualifications sufficiently to create an “Army of skilled young people”, Jeremy Corbyn has hit back, saying that “Lip service” is too often paid to vocational training. He maintains that the UK’s low tax system has left our education system bereft of funding.
However, it is arguable that it is precisely the demand for some evidence of a return on investment by Apprenticeship Levy payers that has put a fire behind the Department of Education to hastily implement reforms, since the launch of this payroll tax early in 2017 which has forced large employers to contribute a tax of half a percent of their wages bill into the further education system.
Delayed
Anne Milton, the current apprenticeship and skills minister announced that her team of officials had carried out testing of the delivery of the new T-levels, particularly the work placement elements of the qualification, and discovered that the infrastructure can’t be pulled together that quickly. This setback follows a stream of delays in the planning, including the advisory development panels failing to have any members appointed or commence the planning meetings.
Details to follow
A report released in July 2017 by Frontier Economics also confirmed that having a single awarding body for each T-level would not be possible because it could leave a course open to collapse if one awarding organisation shut down without a back-up company to pick up the licences. It could also lead to lack of the competition in course quality that is needed.
The DfE is now poised for a busy summer drawing together their employers and FE/training providers to coordinate the delivery of the new T-level.
About the author
Katie Newell
Katie Newell BA(Hons) PGCE is an ex-primary school teacher, Head of Maths, Head of Year five and languages specialist. Katie qualified in Psychology at Liverpool then specialised in Primary Languages for her PGCE at Reading. Before teaching, Katie was a financial commentator and is now the Content Manager for eteach.com and fejobs.com. Katie feels passionately that teachers are the unsung heroes of society; that opening minds to creative timetabling could revolutionise keeping women in teaching, and that a total change to pupil feedback is the key to solving the work life balance issue for the best job in the world.