Question asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of
Ofsted’s final report of its T-level thematic review, published
on 20 July, specifically its conclusions that (1) in some
instances, T-levels provide inappropriate work placements, and
(2) many T-level students drop out after the first year.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education () (Con)
My Lords, T-levels are new, challenging qualifications, and we
continue to offer extensive support for their implementation. We
want every T-level student to receive outstanding vocational
education. We commissioned Ofsted to help us identify what
further areas for improvement might be needed. We welcome its
report and are already taking action, including a £12 million
employer support fund and bespoke workforce support to help
address concerns around work placements and student continuity.
(Lab)
I thank the Minister for that response, but the Ofsted T-level
review was highly critical, identifying what it termed a “range
of shortcomings”. I hope this will lead to them being resolved.
Until that happens, another issue raised in the report is of real
urgency. Ofsted called for a review of the Government’s wider
level 3 reforms, including the defunding of most BTECs by 2025.
It points to the impact of that on disadvantaged young people.
That is a point that noble Lords across your Lordships’ House
have made on numerous occasions, both during the passage of the
skills Act and since then. On each occasion, the Minister
dismissed our fears as scaremongering. Now that Ofsted has
recommended it, will she and her Ministers revisit the question
of the impact of defunding alternate pathways to T-levels on
young people?
(Con)
The Government do not have any plans to revisit the defunding of
those other pathways. We are confident in the quality of T-levels
and the employability that they offer students. Our job is to
make them work at the level of the best institutions that have
been delivering them, which the noble Lord will have seen
referred to in the Ofsted report. We will make sure we offer
those opportunities particularly to the young people to whom he
refers.
(Con)
My Lords, is the Minister aware that so many students are
dropping T-levels because they have been misled? They thought
they were going to study a technical curriculum, but the
curriculums are 75% academic and 25% technical—that is absurd. In
the review she is undertaking, will she ensure that the
curriculums for engineering, construction and digital skills are
at least 40% technical, otherwise students will not study them?
That means you will have fewer technicians for the economy, which
desperately needs more.
(Con)
As my noble friend knows, the qualifications were designed very
closely with employers. The content of the curriculum reflects
what employers, working with the department and colleges, told us
that they needed. I remind the House that, historically, we have
had over 200 qualifications in engineering and over 200 in
building and construction. There has been a complicated, unclear
landscape. We will now have a clear and high quality one.
(LD)
My Lords, the Minister talked about the problems with these
courses. There are virtually no problems that were not predicted.
Could the Minister tell us what we are doing about careers advice
for the young people taking these qualifications? Where there are
courses which have failed—if everybody fails on the second year,
as is pointed out in the report, they have failed—will the
careers advice in the local area reflect this, so that those
courses can die if they are not delivering?
(Con)
I do not recognise the examples the noble Lord referred to. When
I talk to students who have done T-levels, they are evangelical
about the value it has brought them and proud of their
achievements and the quality of what they have learned. In
relation to careers advice, in spring this year we made available
grants of up to £10,000 per provider to boost careers guidance in
schools and colleges, so all students have a good understanding
of T-levels and their benefits.
(CB)
My Lords, what are the Government doing to encourage more small
and medium-sized enterprises to offer T-level work placements,
given that in many parts of the country placements in larger
businesses may not be easily available and SMEs play a key role
in many vital sectors of the economy, including the creative
sector?
(Con)
The noble Lord is absolutely right that we need a range of
choices of placements, and that must include small and
medium-sized enterprises. We launched recently an employer
support fund, which will pay for legitimate costs employers incur
in hosting placements. We believe that will be of particular
value to small and medium-sized enterprises.
(Lab)
My Lords, I am slightly shocked that the Minister does not seem
to be taking seriously the very serious criticisms included in
the Ofsted report about T-levels—which, I have to say, my noble
friend Lord Watson and other noble Lords predicted when the House
discussed the establishment of T-levels. There is no satisfaction
in being right, because this concerns the lives, futures and
aspirations of a cohort of young people who have been badly
served by T-levels, many of whom have dropped out. Has the
department tracked these youngsters? What has happened to them,
and have they been offered alternative options?
(Con)
I will make a couple of points. I think the data that the noble
Baroness and the noble Lord, , referred to on drop-outs
refers to the T-level transition programme—we are doing a lot of
work to strengthen and improve this, for the reasons both noble
Lords referred to—rather than T-levels themselves. In the
interests of fairness and accuracy, noble Lords have
understandably reflected some of the areas for improvement
highlighted by Ofsted, but I will quote the report:
“At their best, T levels provide an opportunity to combine
high-quality study of theory with excellent development of
practical skills”.
(Con)
My Lords, your Lordships’ House had a special Select Committee on
this area and found that the complication for young people not
going on to A-levels was one of the issues. T-levels are a simple
way to put technical qualifications on a par with the academic
route of A-levels. Could my noble friend the Minister please
outline whether there are specific career guidance initiatives to
ensure that children in a school which is offering only A-levels
and has its own sixth form are made aware of T-levels? Obviously,
that may mean they leave and go to a different institution.
(Con)
My noble friend makes a good point. As I referred to, we are
making available grants of up to £10,000 per provider to boost
careers guidance in schools and colleges, so that every child is
aware of the potential of T-levels. Of course, in the skills Act,
the Baker clause, from my noble friend Lord Baker, means that
students are getting more frequent careers input throughout their
time in secondary school.
(Con)
My Lords, I understand that finding suitable placements, even
after Covid, is a particular barrier to increasing the number of
T-levels available from providers. Some employers are poorly
informed about the content and structure of T-levels. Can the
Minister tell me what steps the department is taking to improve
this situation?
(Con)
We are investing in direct support for employers, including
through the delivery of an employer support package which offers
online guidance, workshops and hands-on support to employers. We
have a T-level employer ambassador network, and I mentioned the
employer support fund already. Obviously, we have made a very
significant investment, both in capital and capacity and
delivery, to allow T-levels to be delivered at the scale we need.
(Lab)
My Lords, the Ofsted report also refers to some young people who
started in the first tranche of T-levels expecting that they
would assist them in gaining access to university only to find
that, in the case of their course, that was not possible. Can the
Minister say how many universities accept T-levels for access?
What steps are the Government taking to increase that number?
(Con)
There are relatively few T-levels where students have completed
both years, given the timing of their introduction. Currently,
136 higher education providers have indicated that they will
accept T-levels, including the vast majority of Russell group
universities.
(Con)
My Lords, I congratulate the Government on introducing T-levels,
which are, to judge from local reaction, a very successful,
solidly academic qualification. We have considerable worry that
there will be many students who will not be up to taking them who
are currently served by BTECs. I urge my noble friend to revisit
that, because these are students who we should not be letting
down.
(Con)
We are absolutely committed to those students. I remind the House
that the current applied general qualifications produce very
mixed outcomes indeed. The point my noble friend makes is valid,
and, of course, by increasing the quality of the offer at level 3
we also need to reform qualifications at level 2, level 1 and
entry level, to make sure that we equip students to progress to
the highest level to which they aspire. With that, I also wish
the House a very happy and peaceful recess.
