Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many businesses can be involved in the provision of (a) a T Level industry placement and (b) flexi-job apprenticeships.

T Levels offer students a mixture of classroom learning and ‘on-the-job’ experience during an industry placement of at least 315 hours (approximately 45 days). Industry placements can be split across a maximum of two employers to help deliver a breadth of experience for the student, as well as creating opportunities within small to medium enterprises, in sectors such as creative, digital and construction, where short project-based work is common. Alternatively, a placement can be carried out across an employer’s supply chain or network, up to a maximum of two partners/sub-contractors, to enable students to experience an end-to-end process.

Over 16,000 students started a T Level course from September 2023, which is almost as many students as in the first three cohorts combined, and the department will be introducing new T Levels in September 2024. As the department scale up T Levels, we are keen to increase the numbers of employers offering industry placements. The department has recently published the T Level Action Plan, which sets out further measures the department is taking over the year ahead to support providers and employers to grow their T Level programmes and support even more young people across the country. This includes new resources from the Strategic Development Network to support easier engagement between providers and employers. The T Level action plan can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6627c087d29479e036a7e68e/T_Level_Action_Plan_2023_to_2024.pdf.

Flexi Job Apprenticeship Agencies (FJAAs) were introduced in 2022 to support sectors with short-term, project-based work to access apprenticeships. They allow apprentices to work with different host employers, and on a range of projects, to gain the skills and knowledge needed to be successful in their chosen field.

An organisation must be on the Register of FJAAs to operate as a Flexi-Job Apprenticeship Agency. Any business can contact an agency to become a host employer. The department does not place a limit on how many host employers an agency can work with, it is for the agency to decide what is best for their delivery model.

FJAAs will arrange placements with one or more host employer to cover the duration of the apprenticeship. Placements must offer apprentices the chance and time to obtain and embed the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for their apprenticeship standard. There were 640 FJAA apprenticeship starts in the 2022/23 academic year and 570 starts have been reported from August to January in the 2023/24 academic year. More details on Flexi Job Apprenticeships can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/flexi-job-apprenticeships.