Video Transcript - Planning the student journey with Strode College

Alison Leaverland, Deputy Principal for Curriculum and Quality

Our curriculum intent Astro College, for delivering T levels was really clear. We already provide high quality A Level provision and we wanted vocational technical qualifications that were equal to those A Level qualifications. T levels would enable our students to leave this college and find skilled employment or still go on to university and that was really important to us.

So we were very lucky to be successful in our capital bids for T Levels.  And we have really maximized the use of that that funding. We have amazing facilities, we have a real-life ward and we have very high spec digital classrooms. As a small to medium college, the ability to do that would have been really challenging. So we've been very fortunate with the funding. The impact it has on young people to actually be working in what they can see is a real ward, the benefits is just amazing.

Ziggi Keill-Griffin, Science T Level and Transitional Course Development Manager

A big part of T Level coordination development delivery is engaging parents and carers as well as students. We do this more often than not through our open evening events where we will pull the parents into our various T Level classrooms, introduce them to the fantastic facilities. We really like to stress to parents how great our T Level facilities are and how these are matched to what they would use and experience an industry as well. We show our enthusiasm for our courses to the parents, and we win them over.

Jodie Chorley, Course Manager Health T Level

In order to engage students and schools with the T Level, we do a number of activities.

We organise experience days where we invite students in and come and spend some time with us, do some practical activities. We give them our leaflets, they take away our course leaflets so they can feedback to the students. Just to get the information out there and let students know, you know, what's involved in the T Level

Alison Leaverland, Deputy Principal for Curriculum and Quality

So having a career focused interview process has really supported the college to make sure we're getting that learner on the right programme.

Ziggi Keill-Griffin, Science T Level and Transitional Course Development Manager

We think it's really important that we get the right students on the right courses, and this starts right back when they apply for a place at Strode. We asked them to do a pre interview task which asks them to look at possible careers they might be interested in or areas they might want to work in. We invite them along to the open evenings so they can get an idea about the big range of different courses we offer.  Our interviews are then carried out by subject or course specific tutors, and we talk to those students about their learning styles as well. We find that really, really important.

Dougal Bradwell, Digital Production, Design and Development T Level Student

My tutors mostly gave me a lot of support and guidance in terms of finding where I wanted to go and what part I wanted to go onto next after college. So I decided to go with the T Level rather than the A Level route, mostly because it seemed to give a greater variety in terms of the content in the core. So for example, the work placement which would basically allow me to gain a bit more knowledge into the working world which will gear me up for going into a career.

Ziggi Keill-Griffin, Science T Level and Transitional Course Development Manager

I was very lucky when I started developing the T Level science course, to find an employer early on that I could engage with, and I could really use on my course. They have been pivotal.  In the first couple of months of the students starting the course, they set up two trips, so we were able to go out. We had tours of the industry placement setting; they took us around two different settings. They got to know the students, the students got to know them, and they got a real feel for what it was going to be like going into those settings. Their employers also come into us. They've done various talks to the students about what it's like to work in the scientific sector. They've given us materials to use with our students such as SOP's, standard operating procedures, health and safety documents as well, to use with students, and they've given us lots and lots and lots of information. They've also been our first port of call when we've had questions. So we're not industry specialists, were teachers. A lot of us have never worked in industry. So when we've had a question on the specification, and we've thought what is that? They've been our first port of call to answer those questions and they're only ever an e-mail away, which has been really, really good for us.

Jodie Chorley, Course Manager Health T Level

Other groups that have supported us with the T Level implementation are the Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group who have worked with us in a number of different areas when delivering the curriculum. They've provided guest speakers.

So, for example, infection prevention control and by working closely with the different areas that's enabled us to establish further links, further knowledge to implement into our curriculum. So they've been able to provide resources and hopefully, you know, we’ll continue to work with them to provide further opportunities for the students to get involved in projects and get the word out as to what the T Level is and promote that.

 Peter Royds, Chief Technical Officer – Avalon Sciences Ltd

I first heard about T levels from Strode College. We struggled to recruit people and so we thought by going To Strode College, looking into apprenticeships and other possibilities we may be able to have students come and join us that would be here for the short and all the longer term.

What we liked about the T Level and what made it a particular fit for us was that the student is with us on a weekly basis, rather than a famine and feast of a lot of days in the summer and then don't see them for a year or so. We like the academic support that's behind them and we like the fact that they get the vision of industry as well. At the same time, it felt like a very good mix.

Jodie Chorley, Course Manager Health T Level

Our detailed induction means that students are prepared from the start for coming onto a working environment. We want to make sure that they get used to being in this environment on the ward quite quickly, so they can learn to build their confidence. We set expectations and ground rules from the start so that they know what's expected, but also so that they feel safe and they can establish those core care values that they're going to need to study and be successful.

Tanya Schottlander, Head of Student Services

Obviously there's quite a lot of preparatory work that takes place and the curriculum areas work really hard to get to know the employers as well as the students. They build these fantastic relationships. It's a real 3 way partnership between the employer, the college and the student.

Ziggi Keill-Griffin, Science T Level and Transitional Course Development Manager

The main thing we put together to support our students going into the workplace in terms of resources, was we put together what we've called an industry placement diary. Part of the diary assesses things like pre work placement assessment to ensure that they are ready to ensure that they know where they're going, what's expected of them, , and to make sure that they feel ready?

Tanya Schottlander, Head of Student Services

So it's really important that when students go out on their industry placement that they are ready. There are a number of things that we do to support them with that.  First of all, we really get to know our students well and we make sure that they're ready to go out on placement before they do. We practice the skills that they're going to need. So we're really lucky, we have fantastic resources here. We have a mock ward where they can go and practice those skills and get themselves ready. We also have a nursery. So that we can see that they're ready and if there are some barriers, say for example, a student might have some anxiety, then our services will work with them so that when they go into their placement, they're absolutely ready.

Peter Royds, Chief Technical Officer – Avalon Sciences Ltd

To ensure that Dougal was particularly comfortable when he joined us, we put him through the same paces at any new on boarding member of staff would receive.  This includes various health and safety training for our different processes and policies that we have in place. We also then had him placed in different departments all around the area, the company - in our assembly, our manufacturing, our electronics production, our design team, our IT support. This enabled him to  have a very broad overview of the company as a whole before he even began any project on his own or mentored project.

 Aaron Coleman, IT Manager – Avalon Sciences Ltd

So the support Dougal gets on a day-to-day basis is he's currently in a team of engineers. So they are there for Dougal to help him with any problems he's got, to mentor him, to show him along the right lines for the processes and procedures that he needs to follow within the business and that just help him get through the day in a busy office.

Tanya Schottlander, Head of Student Services

So when students are getting towards the point when they're looking at their next steps, they've already done quite a lot of work. So we have a careers programme that runs alongside the tutorial programme and they're taught by industry specialists, which is really important, so they're getting that information, advice and guidance throughout the whole of their programme. And most of the time, by the time they come to the end of their course, they're already sorted. And that is the wonderful thing about T levels is it does give them those skills. And most of our students are ready for their next steps and have already decided their next steps by the time they finished.

Dougal Bradwell, Digital Production, Design and Development T Level Student

So I would really love to go into university as it's the kind of traditional approach. With the T Level, you can also go straight into a career because of the workplace and that is involved and also the opportunities that it gives you.

Ziggi Keill-Griffin, Science T Level and Transitional Course Development Manager

There's been a massive impact on our students from everything we've done with the T Levels from the early development to the resourcing, to the employer engagement.

Alison Leaverland, Deputy Principal for Curriculum and Quality

So we had some skills challenges for delivering the T Levels. We had to find ways to overcome those and we did. And the way we did that was, first of all, making sure the team analysed the spec in great detail. And by doing that special analysis they could identify areas where they thought actually we haven't got the skill set to deliver this. So to what we had to do then I think, well, how are we going to do this? So we sometimes recruited. We went out for additional teaching staff, but where we didn't feel teaching staff was necessary, we then looked about how we could work with employers and deliver some of that on in the workplace. So it was about being flexible. We've also had discussions with other colleges regarding whether we can work together on delivery. And so there's lots of ways you can overcome those challenges. The key thing is, is that we also really develop our staff, so where there was a skill set that staff could develop, we make sure that we support them to do that. And that's really key for us at the college that we could develop our own as well.

The advice I'd give to other providers is talk to other providers because we've been through it. And we would welcome, you know, conversations and we have had other colleges come see us because actually sharing those experiences is really, really beneficial because why try it from scratch when someone's already done it?

Ziggi Keill-Griffin, Science T Level and Transitional Course Development Manager

Engage with your employers - as many as you can. Even if they don't seem particularly interested in the first instance, keep communicating. They might not be able to offer you a full placement, but they might be able to offer you a one-day trip or a visit that could count towards placement. They might be able to offer you a live stream and a tour of their workplace. They might be able to offer you some documentation that would help as a resource. So engage with many employers as possible and do that on a personal teacher level as well. Don't rely on your work experience placement people to do.

Alison Leaverland, Deputy Principal for Curriculum and Quality

That I think the greatest success of T Levels is when you look into our case studies, what we've got on T Level students are things that they have done and have achieved, and we'll go on to achieve. We're in early days yet, but I am expecting great things for destinations for those students.

It's the confidence those learners have.  I just think when they go into that workplace and employers see what those students can bring to the workplace will speak for themselves.