This week is the first ever National T Levels Week, running from Monday 10th – Friday 14th October 2022.

It is a chance to raise awareness of the many T Level subjects now available and showcase the success of the programme; both in helping young people develop technical skills and in helping businesses of all sizes to fill emerging skills gaps.

In this blog we focus on how T Levels help small businesses fill skills gaps, introduce you to the new T Level courses that started this September and explain how the T Level Gateway can help you get involved and offer placements!

So how do T Levels help businesses fill skills gaps?

T Levels are new technical courses for 16–19-year-olds that have been designed in collaboration with industry. They focus on building the knowledge, skills and behaviours that young people will need to transition successfully into the workplace in their chosen career.

As part of their learning, students must undertake an industry placement – this is approximately nine weeks (but could be spread out over a year) working in a suitable business. In this placement, they will gain exposure to real work and soak up the working environment that they’ll be moving into after completing their studies.

This industry placement provides an excellent opportunity for small businesses to get addition resource in the short-term, supporting your existing team with their workload. There isn’t an expectation that you’ll provide wages, just support and line management.

Industry placements also help long-term, acting as an extended work trial – as you get to see first-hand someone’s attributes, attitude and ability – and can offer those that fit in with your team the chance of employment.

Ultimately T Level industry placements are a great new tool to get young people to know about your business and industry and, potential, help you to unearth and develop tomorrow’s talent.

Which T Levels started in September?

T Levels have been running for two-years in some industry subjects and there is a host of case studies that you can access that demonstrate the business benefits of offering industry placements.

This September, six more T Level subjects were rolled out to new students across the country:

• accounting
• design and development for engineering and manufacturing
• engineering, manufacturing, processing and control
• finance
• maintenance, installation and repair for engineering and manufacturing
• business and administration

It’s unlikely that all of the subject areas listed above will be applicable to your business, however the vast majority of SMEs have some administration, customer service, sales, marketing or social media tasks that could be delegated to an Industry Placement student. If you wanted to start somewhere, the business and administration pathway covers these options.

We are now looking for employers to offer industry placements to students enrolled on these programmes.

We’re commissioned by the government to help you offer placements

The Department for Education has commissioned Supplytrain to provide this T Level Gateway service. By submitting your interest, we’ll call you and explain how industry placements work then, if suitable, put you in touch with a local partner so you can bring young people into your business for free. Simple as that. 

Contact the team if you’d like to find out more!