AoC responds to the guidance explaining the employer support fund for T Level industry placements

Responding to today's guidance explaining the Employer support fund for T Level industry placements:

AoC interim director of education policy Cath Sezen said: “Today’s T level funding announcements will be welcomed by colleges. We hope that the employer fund in particular will help engage businesses to offer placements which in turn will help meet their skills gaps. The higher rates for T levels will help colleges deal with considerable challenges in recruiting staff for these new qualifications. However, to make real impact funding needs to be a permanent fixture. T levels are large programmes requiring specialist teaching expertise which is difficult to find, fund and keep.

“And funding alone will not address college concerns that T levels will only meet the needs of those young people who have achieved good GCSE grades at 16, rather than those who have lower starting points but flourish on current qualifications which are going to be defunded. There is a real risk that a large minority in future won’t have a suitable qualification to work for.

“These are young people who currently go onto successful careers in the health service and construction. Defunding is a blunt and unnecessary instrument which needs to be stopped before it damages young people’s life chances.”