If you were going to make a list of the challenges that colleges have faced this year, you’d be spoiled for choice. There was the switch to online learning, the chaos of cancelled exams and ongoing concern about “lost learning”, to name just a few. But there has been another challenge that some teachers in further education have been dealing with on top of all the above: delivering the government’s new “gold-standard” qualification for technical education, the T level.

The word “challenge” comes up often in discussions about T levels. Since they were first introduced in Philip Hammond’s Budget statement of 2017, they’ve had a bumpy road to delivery: there have been delays on specifications, as well as providers dropping out and employers being reluctant to offer work placements, not to mention the negative impact that Covid has had on teaching and learning across the board.

So, what has the experience been like for those on the front line of delivery this year?

Mark Smith is teaching the digital T-level pathway at City College Norwich (CCN). He admits that one of the biggest challenges has been the complexity of the course curriculum. Although classed as a level 3, in reality it is more like a “level 3 and a half”, he says.

One of his colleagues at CCN, Laura Flood, agrees. She, too, is delivering the digital pathway.

“We did expect it to be quite a tough year for the first year of running it,” she says.

“When we took students on, we knew it was going to be a four-day-a-week course, and the expectation was that it isn’t just an A-level approach but an A level and a half. It’s not quite level 4 but it’s definitely more than a level 3.”

The qualification was always expected to be a step up from the equivalent level 3 Btecs, but no one could have predicted the impact the pandemic would have on this cohort of students.

Challenges for FE colleges introducing T levels

Liv Bradley, construction T-level lead at CCN, says the cancellation of GCSEs in summer 2020 has had ramifications.

“The main challenge with students not sitting their GCSEs is they haven’t gone through the experience of exams and getting their results and, actually, their core skills are not necessarily as strong as we would have expected,” she says.

“The [T-level] specification is so different from Btecs. There’s a lot more expected from the students. And the assessment methods have changed: we’ve gone from assignments and coursework to exam preparation. Focusing on preparing them for exams at the end of year one is definitely something we’re trying to work on and get them ready for.”

The qualifications don’t just expect more from students but from teachers, too. In 2018, the Department for Education (DfE) announced the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) would start a T-level professional development scheme to upskill teachers in recognition of this.

Developing staff knowledge has definitely been one of the major challenges, says Bradley. “Nationally, upskilling and CPD have been a big part of the preparation for the T-level delivery.

“I have attended several CPD sessions on surveying and the use of drones, and found these highly valuable,” she says.

At Barnsley College, digital lead Jessica Lee-Henderson went one step further and hired four new specialists to teach different aspects of the course.

“We quickly established we had a skills gap in our provision and decided to recruit four new, really highly specialist, staff lecturers, focusing on specific things, such as data analytics, cybersecurity and software development, so we have the skill set for delivery,” she explains.

Lee-Henderson’s team has also made use of training from organisations such as the ETF, has had best-practice sessions with other colleges delivering the same courses, and has worked with a teaching and learning coach to help staff focus on exam-based courses. But even with all this support, it has still taken time for them to get used to the new style of delivery, she says.

And once again, Covid has made the process more difficult. Not only have staff had to teach T levels for the first time, they have had to do so remotely - and that has been tough, says Smith.

It [was] hard to get the students engaged in theory when they [were] working at home. Our T-level students are bright, enthusiastic and really well motivated, which isn’t surprising because we pitched our entry requirements quite high, but this [did] mean they [were] almost going away and doing their own little things,” he says.

Despite that, attendance has been good, at “around 98 per cent throughout”, he adds, and the students were all keen to get back to face-to-face teaching as soon as they were able to.

“They wanted to be the first ones in all week, which is very different to some of our other classes,” says Smith.

However, Lee-Henderson says there have also been benefits to remote teaching, and that students at Barnsley College have asked for a hybrid delivery model going forwards. “I was talking to one of our students and he said he’s found it useful to have some of his time at home because he has made really good progress working there without distractions.

“But on the flip side, some lessons he’s done, project management and working in teams, would have been better to have in a classroom,” she says.

‘Students relished being on site’

Caroline Wareing is curriculum manager for further education, society, health and childhood at Blackpool and the Fylde College, and has been leading the delivery of the education and childcare T level. She says the main benefit of full on-site delivery is that it gives students more opportunity to train with industry-level equipment.

“Our students have absolutely relished being on site and it’s simply because we have industry-standard equipment here. They get to develop those skills and competencies, and the confidence required to perform in industry and to engage with our employers to their best potential,” she says.

Access to this equipment is important, she continues, “because of the requirement for the T level to develop really high-level technical competencies”.

And there’s another element of the qualification that has been particularly difficult to deliver remotely: the work placement. These placements are the key pillar of the T level, with at least 45 days expected to be spent in the workplace.

The pandemic has had a major impact here: not only do some employers have no capacity within their business at the moment but some have also moved to a working-from-home model.

Apprenticeships and skills minister Gillian Keegan has stressed that while the placements can be pushed forward into the second year of the course, they must happen in person.

However, Lee-Henderson is a firm advocate of a different approach - and says education needs to reflect the way industry currently works. “A hybrid situation would be absolutely fine because it mirrors exactly what industry is like. Digital, for a long time, hasn’t been a sector which relies on an office,” she says.

“We work really closely with a games company, Hutch. They have offices and staff who work for them all over the world.

“We perhaps need to bring education in line and follow what some industries are doing. The placement at the minute is quite structured around being in the building.”

But Smith and Flood say their students are desperate to get into the workplace - and argue that the first introduction should happen in person.

“They need to see how people work in a working environment because even though they’re young adults, they’re still a little bit in the school zone. Some of them are just moving out of it now.

“It’s not until the second year, they become more adult, so maybe then they could have a portion virtually, but the first experience really needs to be physical,” says Smith.

Overall, the teachers all agree that delivery of these courses will continue to be a challenge going forward.

At CCN, Smith and Flood will teach two new T-level routes from September 2021, and Flood is apprehensive about the logistics.

“We’re adding another 1,200 guided learning hours so there’s a lot of extra stuff to contend with.

“We are hoping to bring someone else on board to help us with the teaching of those,” says Flood.

“It’s logistics: how we timetable for all of that and how we fit it all in.”

Confusing landscape

Wareing, meanwhile, is concerned about T levels’ place in the post-16 technical landscape when the post-16 landscape is already confusing for learners.

“When I speak to parents of 15- or 16-year-olds at school, they are not entirely sure what T levels are and, in some ways, nor are the schools. At times, there is still the perception that there are Btecs, A levels and apprenticeships, and nothing in between.

“The level 3 landscape, in terms of qualifications, is very crowded and requires a streamlined approach, and I welcome the Department for Education consultation on post-16 qualifications.

“In terms of a challenge, we want T levels to be a success because we know students who embark on and complete a T level will be secure in those higher-level technical and professional roles in the future. I know it’s early days and I’m probably impatient in my desire to raise nationally the profile of T levels. I hope, when the consultation on level 3 qualifications is completed and actions taken, the landscape is more streamlined than it is now.

“That will enable more comprehensive careers guidance to take place and for students to know they are taking the right next steps to their dream job.”

Kate Parker is an FE reporter at Tes

This article originally appeared in the 28 May 2021 issue under the headline “Taking technical qualifications to the next level is tough”