Updated Industry Placement Delivery Approaches

To mark the start of national T Levels Week, we are pleased to announce a set of changes to T Level industry placements. These changes are designed to provide more flexibility in placement delivery approaches while maintaining a high quality, substantive experience of the workplace - unlocking opportunity for students to develop skills and hands-on experience across a wider variety of roles and employers, and enabling providers to deliver placements that are better tailored to individual student needs and current employer working practices.

These updated approaches have been agreed following extensive feedback on the current delivery of industry placements received from employers, providers and students. They are applicable to all T Level placements (with the exception of those in Education and Early Years (EYE), and Dental Nursing specialisms which have specific requirements linked to licenses to practice).

We will not be changing the duration of placements, however the following changes will apply from January 2025 and we will publish updated guidance in January on how these approaches can be implemented.

Updated approaches

From January 2025 onwards, the below changes to the industry placement delivery approaches will apply. These updated approaches should only be used when they align with employer or sector practice and meet student needs - our expectation is that students should continue to work directly with an external employer, face-to-face in a real workplace setting for the majority of their placement. Providers will continue to be responsible for ensuring a high-quality placement experience for individual students.  

1) Up to 20% of the placement can be remote in all T Level Routes (and up to 50% for Digital T Levels)

To reflect employer working practice, students will be able to carry out up to 20% of their placement remotely. For T Levels in the Digital route, we have extended the proportion of placement hours that can be done remotely from 20%, up to a maximum of 50% of hours. ‘Remote’ is where a student is not working face-to-face with an employer and is working away from the traditional employer environment. Remote work should ideally be done on the provider site, unless the provider is confident the student has an appropriate home or alternative environment in which to work.

2) Placements can take place at route level as well as pathway level

To give students a broader range of experiences, a placement can be undertaken across the broader occupational group their T Level sits within (route level), not just their specific T Level subject (pathway) or occupational specialism.

3) Small group projects and simulated activities in skills hub and training centres can take place on the provider site

To make better use of provider facilities, students will be able to undertake up to one third of their placement hours on the provider site developing technical skills and undertaking meaningful tasks - where this is under the direct supervision of their industry placement employer. This should be particularly helpful where an employer already uses the provider site to train existing staff; cannot have students onsite for health and safety reasons, or to allow students to work with a broader range of employers that do not have the facilities to accommodate students (for example, SMEs or employers without an office)

Existing approaches

The updated approaches can be used alongside existing industry placement delivery approaches, which remain unchanged as below.

• Part-time work: applicable to all T Levels.
• Up to two employers: applicable to all T Levels (except EYE which can have more employers).
• Supply chain and employer networks (placements with up to three employers with one employer acting as the lead employer): applicable to all T Levels except EYE and Dental Nursing.
• Work taster activities (up to 35 hours): applicable to all T Levels
• Special Approaches for SEND and Youth Offenders: applicable to all T Levels except EYE and Dental Nursing.

Next steps

Detailed guidance will be published in January 2025 and the new delivery approaches can be implemented from that point onwards. We will support providers and employers in understanding these updates through webinars and online materials. We will also set out more detail about the expectations and examples of how these new approaches can be applied as part of a high-quality placement when we publish updated guidance in January.