Asked by: Ian Mearns (Labour - Gateshead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that T-level (a) routes are sufficiently flexible to enable learners to change course and (b) qualifications are transferable to allow people a range of career options.
Answered by Anne Milton
We recognise that, as is the case for current provision, some students will choose to change T levels after starting their course. We want to ensure that T level courses accommodate this flexibility.
We will be working with the providers of the first T levels in 2020/21 and 2021/22 to explore how courses could be designed which allow students to change to another T level early on in the course without it affecting their progress. We have also ensured the core component of the T level includes content common across all T levels within a route, which will help support this.
T levels are much broader in content than apprenticeships. Students will learn about a range of different occupations in the sector and develop skills common to each, meaning they will have more options and scope to move occupations once in work.
Asked by: Ian Mearns (Labour - Gateshead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to publish a response to the feedback on his consultation on the implementation of T-level programmes; and if he will ensure that his response is sufficiently detailed to enable the sector to prepare effectively for the introduction of T-levels in 2020.
Answered by Anne Milton
We ran a public consultation from 30 November 2017 to 8 February 2018 to obtain views on the major aspects of our proposals for implementing T levels. This involved publishing our proposals online, alongside a survey for respondents to complete. The consultation generated 430 responses from a wide range of organisation types and individuals, spanning educational institutions, industry, awarding organisations, representative bodies, local authorities and others. We also held a series of ten consultation events around the country, with over 500 people attending. We are carefully reviewing all responses to the consultation, and will publish a response in due course.
We are planning to introduce the first three T levels from September 2020 and will shortly be announcing the providers who will be delivering these. In the 2017 Spring Budget, we announced further funding, rising to £500 million a year, to cover the additional taught hours and industry placement requirements for T levels. We will be asking providers to complete a data collection about their plans to implement T levels, which we will use to develop a programme of support that will be made available to all providers.
Asked by: Ian Mearns (Labour - Gateshead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to promote the (a) awareness of and (b) the changes relating to T-Levels.
Answered by Anne Milton
We have engaged with a range of key audiences through a number of different channels to increase the understanding of T levels. We published the T level Action Plan last October, which set out our plans for the implementation of T levels and recent policy decisions. This was followed by a series of open engagement events to help raise awareness and ask attendees for their views. The events were well attended and well received.
We ran a public consultation from 30 November 2017 to 8 February 2018 to obtain views on particular elements of our proposals for T levels. The consultation generated 430 responses from a wide range of organisation types. We held ten consultation events around the country, with over 500 people attending. We will publish a response in due course.
In November 2017, the Confederation of British Industry supported the department’s Skills Summit which was attended by over 100 employers and included specific sessions on T levels.
We engage regularly with our delivery partners through various activities as we move closer to first implementation in 2020. For example, we have invited providers to express an interest to deliver the first three T levels in 2020 and to bid for funding to build capacity within their own organisations to deliver industry placements. We have also begun more sustained engagement with employers on the design and delivery of industry placements. Engagement with our key partners will continue to increase as we move further into the implementation phase.
We will increase promotions of T Levels on a frequent basis.
Asked by: Ian Mearns (Labour - Gateshead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to grant Ofsted powers to inspect multi academy trusts.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
There are no plans to grant Ofsted powers to inspect multi academy trusts (MAT) at this time.
Ofsted currently scrutinises MAT performance through focused inspections of schools within the same MAT.
The Department is working with Ofsted to develop new approaches to better scrutinise MATs, and the legal framework already has sufficient provisions to take this forward. We will publish details in due course.