Britain’s technical education revolution gets off to a standing start

Lordswood Girls’ School, in a wooded enclave in the Birmingham suburbs, thought it was ready. Rated “Outstanding” in its last Ofsted report, the academy consistently outperforms national averages at GCSE, and was recently rated “significantly above average” for academic progression even as a third of its pupils – twice the national average – do not speak English as their first language.

Lordswood put its name forward to pilot one of three T-level courses, new technical qualifications that require two years of intensive study of a single vocational or technical field, in education and childcare, and began teaching in September. But progress so far has been less than outstanding.

“We planned to do assemblies [and] visit feeder schools, so that we could introduce [the students] to the T-levels”, says Loveena Verma, Assistant Head Teacher at the Lordswood Trust. But because of “lost opportunities for recruitment” brought about by the pandemic, only four students ended up enrolling on the course, out of 114.

Then there was the work experience. Only two students are attending placements at local nurseries, following a total withdrawal of employers from the project in September amidst safety concerns. Until recently the other two students were hoping to start placements in the New Year; but for now, they are stuck at home two days a week, the school unable to source placements them with existing employers.

With the city having endured three lockdowns, and with another likely to follow in the New Year, Lordswood has had a raw deal. At the 43 other schools across England tasked with delivering the T-level, the attitudes of local employers, student attendance rates and teacher resources will all have made their own mark on the experience of the past four months. Reserves of optimism and ingenuity have been put to the test: but the pandemic has also revealed weaknesses in the structure of the program which could last longer than coronavirus.

Not all providers have had as much bad luck as Lordswood. At Suffolk New College, it was always the plan to offer work experience later in the course, once the students had familiarised themselves with the theory, says Vice Principal Jayne Sheehan. “At that point they’ll either want to be civil engineers, or design surveyors and planners, so we’ve set up the placements so that they can go where they want to go eventually”, she says. “By encouraging them to do it at the end, when they can show the companies real skills, we hope that some of them can be taken on as apprentices.”

And what of the students themselves? Ms. Sheehan offers me the testimony of one student, Sam Corneby, an 18-year-old from Woodbridge, Suffolk who enrolled on the course after securing three A-levels in Sixth Form. “It’s a nice intermediate level of study between A-levels and university and it’s been going well”, Sam says. “I’ve enjoyed working on AutoCAD [Computer-aided design] and discovering new things about surveying.” One of his ambitions after graduating is to get involved in the expansion of the Sizewell C power plant, 27 miles away from his campus in Ipswich.

Thirteen students – all boys – have enrolled for the construction course at the College, and their experiences this year will be critical for the T-level’s durability. By launching amidst an economic catastrophe, however, has the Department of Education risked derailing the project before it has even left the station?

Most students, it seems, have been enthusiastic. “They seem to be really enjoying the course”, says Louise Rowley, in charge of over fifty T-level students at Bridgewater College, Devon, who praises its “in-depth” and “focused” structure compared with older BTECs. “We’re lucky as in Ipswich we are a low-risk area [for coronavirus]”, says Ms Sheehan. “So the students are just happy to be in back college.”

National and local restrictions have clearly had a variable impact on delivery; and teacher resources have compounded that effect. Bridgewater College has been able to use its in-house nursery, complete with “observation booths”, to provide placement hours while Lordswood remains reliant on external providers.

Indeed, for Robert Halfon, MP for Harlow and Chair of Parliament’s Education Select Committee, the past four months have revealed a vulnerability. “My one worry about [the T-levels] is that they have to get companies on board, because there’s no financial incentive for them to do it”, he says. The pandemic has exposed the pitfall of relying on employers to deliver a substantial part of the course when it is not always in their interest to do so. “We’ve got to give companies some skin in the game”, with direct financial incentives to weather adverse economic conditions.

And some have criticised the government for going ahead with the T-level when further planning, and a more secure economic landscape, were needed. Of the schools spoken to for this article, two expressed direct concern about administering the course. “The awarding bodies were time pressured in terms of bringing out the new qualification”, says Bridgewater’s Ms. Rowley, who emphasises that getting clarification from Pearson and other awarding bodies about how to properly assess attainment has been one of the big challenges of the past four months, with the course so disrupted. “It’s fair to say we’re all still learning as we go through.”

The status of the T-level as a substitute for the old BTECs also remains ambiguous, with many providers, including Lordswood, continuing to run both while criteria for assessment are clarified and the viability of the course tested.

That test will last many more years, and the Department of Education is planning its own review next year. Until then, it will be up to the schools themselves to ensure the T-level has a future. As a member of the South West Institute of Technology, one of dozens of such institutions established by the Department across the country, Bridgewater is liaising with employers to organise teaching and careers events to help advertise clear path-ways into higher education and apprenticeships for current students. The Royal Corp of Signals recently offered a talk to students in digital design on cybersecurity, to show them, says Ms Rowley, “where digital T-level might take them that is a little bit outside of the norm.”

But despite the ingenuity and optimism of the teachers tasked with delivering an unfamiliar course in unprecedented conditions, caution is now the dominant mood. “I’m happy to play the waiting game and see if other colleges have worked”, says Ms Sheehan at Suffolk New College. It is safe to say that Britain’s revolution in technical education is off to a standing start – with much already to improve on.