Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase the uptake of T-level qualifications.

In order to raise awareness of T Levels, and to ensure that as many young people as possible benefit from these qualifications, the department has invested around £11 million in national communications campaigns. These campaigns will continue into at least 2025.

The department continues to work with the Careers and Enterprise Company and Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge programme to ensure students make informed decisions about qualifications at 16. In addition, the department has provided additional funding for all T Level providers to help them to promote T Levels locally in this financial year.

To support providers in scaling up their T Level provision, the department announced a 10% increase to the national funding rates for T Levels for the 2023/24 academic year. The department has also committed over £450 million in capital funding to ensure T Level students have access to high quality facilities and equipment. To help staff prepare to deliver T Levels, the T Level Professional Development programme continues to offer free support, with over 18,000 individuals in further education providers and schools benefitting.

Industry placements are a critical part of the T Level and the department is committed to ensuring a strong pipeline of employers across all sectors are ready to offer placements. The department has introduced a range of flexibilities to ensure that industry placements are deliverable across all industries. Since 2018/19 over £250 million has been invested in capacity funding to help providers build relationships with employers and secure high-quality industry placements. The department has also recently introduced a £12 million Employer Support Fund to support employers with the costs incurred when delivering placements in the 2023/24 financial year.