Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure work placements for t-levels are available in every town in the UK.

Ensuring employers are made aware of T Levels and are well prepared to deliver high quality industry placements is key to the success of T Level delivery. We have invested over £200 million over the past 4 years to help providers build their capacity and relationships with employers, and have developed a comprehensive package of advice and guidance to support providers to deliver placements, as well as networking opportunities to share best practice.

We are engaging directly with employers of all sizes throughout England, via the department’s employer engagement teams, to promote the benefits of T Levels and of hosting industry placements. We are providing an extensive programme of employer focussed support to help ensure employers are able to deliver placements. This includes a comprehensive employer support package, which offers guidance, workshops and webinars, as well as tailored advice and direct hands-on support, to help build employer confidence, and capability and capacity to deliver high-quality industry placements. We have also implemented different delivery models to ensure placements can be delivered by employers across all industries and locations. Our T Level ambassador network is enabling employers to engage with others in their industries on T Levels and placements. Finally, we have put in place a short-term incentive fund, offering employers £1,000 per industry placement, to encourage employers to offer placements during the pandemic, which has been warmly welcomed by employers.

We will continue to monitor the delivery of placements throughout England and work closely with employers to identify what support they will need going forward to enable them to deliver high quality placements.