Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the current status of the proposed reform of technical education in the North East.

The Government is committed to creating a world class technical education system and we are making progress on delivering the recommendations made by the Independent Panel on Technical Education, chaired by Lord Sainsbury.

In October, we published the attached ‘Post-16 technical education reforms: T level action plan – October 2017’, in which we outlined in more detail our plans for implementation. We announced the introduction of T levels in three routes in 2020 – Digital, Construction and Education & Childcare – with the remaining eight routes launched in two waves in September 2021 and 2022. We expect the first T levels to be delivered by a small number of providers initially and we will begin engaging with providers later this year.

We want every student studying a T level to undertake a substantial work placement. In September 2017 we launched a work placement pilot scheme to test different models and approaches to delivering T level placements. 21 providers are piloting these in academic year 2017/18, working with a range of employers and approximately 2500 students. This includes a pilot scheme in the North East at Sunderland College, information of which can be found on their website: http://sunderlandcollege.ac.uk/2017/10/college-pilots-government-project/.

We will launch a public consultation on T levels later this year.