Industry placement incentives and other frequently asked employer questions

What are T Levels?

T Levels are new, two-year, technical qualifications for 16-19 year olds.

They are the equivalent to 3 A Levels and have been developed in collaboration with employers. This is so the content of the course meets the needs of the industry and prepares students for entry into a skilled profession, an apprenticeship, or further higher-level study.

T Level students spend 80% of their time at a school or college learning and 20% of their time with an employer (or employers) on industry placements, putting their learning into practice.

What is an industry placement?

Industry placements are a compulsory part of  a T Level. Students must spend at least 315 hours working in organisations gaining real on-the-job work skills and experience relevant to their qualification. 315 hours is approximately 45 days over the two year course.

The way in which an industry placement will be structured will be agreed between you, as an employer, and the school or college to fit around the students curriculum. Industry placements could be day release (i.e. 1 day for 45 weeks), a nine week block or a combination of day and block release.

When you’re new to industry placements, you might not want to commit to a who 45 days with someone you don’t know. That’s absluately fine. Students can work across multiple placements and schools and colleges can get you involved in lighter touch activity first.

Every school or college has a slighly different industry placement offer. Our best advice is to submit your interest in our service and someone on our team will call to go through your specific industry placement opportunity and put you in touch with one of our approved school or college in your area most likely to be able to support your needs. 

Are there any industry placement incentives for employers?

We understand that you will have costs when offering industry placements. For example, you may need to buy software licences, equipment or even PPE. There is also the time your team will put into managing an industry placement student. Unfortunately, at this time, there are no financial industry placement incentives nationally to support these costs.

However, wages are optional and industry placements are long enough that students will really get to grips with the work you need them to do. Essentially, this is your investment – so making it count is important!

Whether you are bring people in to help lighten the work load in the here and now, or are looking at industry placements to support your talent pipeline, it’s really important to think about how you can induct students thoroughly and allow them to pick up tasks and projects that keep them motivated without draining your time… we can advise you on this!  

Plus… It’s also worth saying that financial incentives can vary across regions as mayoral authorities or local councils may have their own pots of funding to encourage employers to offer industry placements. If you submit your interest and complete the enquiry form, we will call you to discuss industry placements and let you know of any regional financial incentives that we are aware of. 

Why should my business offer T Level industry placements?

There are endless reasons why hosting an industry placement student could benefit your organisation. For example:

• • Extra resource for your day-to-day operations from students who are developing skills relevant to your business and industry. This gives you more time to focus on things you may not always have time for
  • Give your employees the opportunity to develop management and mentoring skills
  • Support local young people in improving their employability and progression opportunities
  • Inspire the next generation to work in your industry by showcasing what it’s like to work in your business
  • Strengthen your recruiting pipeline and increase diversity within the workplace
  • Improve your Social Value score when tendering for work
  • Get used to working with Gen Z – they are the future workforce!

The T Level Gateway can talk to you about the pros and cons of industry placements for your specific organisation and whether they might be a good option for you.  

Do I need to pay the students for the time they spend on placement?

There is no legal requirement or expectation that T Level students should be paid. The main aim is to ensure the student is accessing a high-quality, meaningful work that helps them to develop skills relevant to their course.

If you wish to pay the student for the time in which they work with you, you can, or you could support the student with other things such as travel costs or lunch money.

Industry placements are a compulsory part or every T Level course and it is tough for businesses at the moment. By providing high-quality, supportive, placements to students, you are helping young people to make a positive start to their career. Do not be put off from getting involved if you cannot afford to pay a contribution to wages. You can discuss this with us or the school or college that you work with.  

How are industry placements different from work experience?

Work experience usually involves allowing a student to shadow you for up to two weeks, having not necessarily studied a course relevant to your industry. They are more there to observe and get a taster for the world of work.

Industry placements are different. The students are studying a related course to your industry, that is the equivalent to 3 A Levels. This means that they know what they want to do and are committed to it, plus they have the relevant skills and knowledge to enable them to add value to your business.

Feedback from employers offering industry placements has been really positive. Many employers say that T Level students can be shy and need a bit of support about workplace culture (they might put their hand up and ask to go to the loo!), but in terms of attitude and application T Level students are generally committed, keen to work and reliable. They’ve chosen where to specialise at 16 – so they know what they want and can add tangible value to your business in lots of ways. 

How can I balance industry placements with my general day-to-day business activities?

Firstly, students will not start an industry placement until they are ready. The school or college they are studying with will make sure they have the basic employability skills needed to make the most of their placement. This means that they should understand how to behave in the workplace and use their initative when required. 

Secondly, if you decide to offer industry placements, the school or college we introduce you to will help you to set goals and responsibilities. These will be communicated with the student before they start on placement. This exercise will also allow you to think through what tasks students can do independently and which they need more support to achieve. 

Lastly, the school or college that you work with will have an industry placement manager on hand to help you if things are not working out as you planned.   

At the T Level Gateway we can help you to consider the types of tasks and projects you could get students to do in the first 5-10 days, so they are learning your system, settling in and not taking up too much management time. You can then look at integrating other work after time, to better support your business and/or assess someone’s longer-term potential.

What if I want to keep on a student after their industry placement has ended?

If you decide that you would like to hire a student after completing their industry placement, you can, although it will be dependent upon what plans the student has too of course!

As the T Level qualifications are equivalent to 3 A Levels, some young people will choose to move on to university, whereas others may be looking for work immediately. 

If you do offer jobs at the end, but feel the student needs further training, you may want to consider degree-apprenticeships.

Degree-apprenticeships are amazing recruitment tools! Essentially you can offer someone a debt-free degree, whilst they carry on working for you. This is very attractive to a lot of young people. If you want to know more about recruiting graduate calibre young people through a degree-apprenticeship programme – contact Supplytrain’s head office at hello@supplytrain.co.uk  

How can my company get involved?

Businesses of all shapes and sizes are encouraged to offer industry placements. For free, impartial advice, submit your interest on this website, complete the enquiry form and one of our team will call you to discuss your exact opportunity.

We have trusted partnerships with schools and colleges across England offering placements. All the T Level providers we work with have signed a service level agreement to respond to and support busy employers quickly and conveniently. This means we can provide great support at no cost to you and signpost you to business-friendly providers on hand to help their students work with you. 

We can also support you with apprenticeship and entry-level recruitment more generally. We hope to hear from you!

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