T levels have potential to deliver homegrown technical talent

Make UK and EngineeringUK have published new research highlighting the benefits of T levels for businesses who are desperate for more young skilled people. However, the report ‘Unlocking talent: Ensuring T Levels deliver the workforce of the future’ also draws attention to the challenges that T levels in the engineering and manufacturing sector face, particularly the industry placement component of the qualification.  

Make UK and EngineeringUK estimate that the engineering and manufacturing T Level route will require as many as 43,500 placements to be provided by employers in the sector by 2024/25. Yet currently only one-in-ten engineering and manufacturing employers surveyed for the report hosts a T level placement and just 12% plan to in the coming year. 

Several factors are holding back engineering and manufacturing employers from engaging with T levels and from offering industry placements, including a lack of employer understanding of T levels and of information and support on offer. The survey found that over half of respondents had never heard of the financial support available for offering placements. Almost 57% said that they had not heard of the tailored advice and hands on direct support available, with 52% saying the same about webinars, guides and case studies, and 63% about shared placements.

Cost and capacity also remain a major barrier, with 44% of engineering and manufacturing businesses saying a lack of staff capacity  is the main barrier to delivering T Level industry placements. Time commitment was the second most significant barrier for employers, while a fifth have concerns about legal constraints, extending to adequate protection of young people in safety-critical industries.

Three-in-ten employers said that the fact they already offered apprenticeships was a barrier to them being able to offer T Level industry placements.

 

To secure more industry placements government action is needed to remove the barriers facing employers offering them. More than half (57%) of manufacturers said that reinstating the £1,000 financial incentive would make the most notable difference to their ability to offer placements and 2 in 5 said integrating T Levels with apprenticeships would help them offer to placements.

 

Make UK and EngineeringUK are calling on Government to restore the £1,000 incentive for SMEs to make it easier for employers to offer a T level placement; to work with sector bodies and organisations to run an awareness raising campaign to get more employers on board; to develop clear progression maps that demonstrate how T levels work within the current education landscape; and to establish a T level industry placement task force to support the delivery of placements and be ambassadors for the wider T level programme.