T Levels the next chapter

The last time I wrote in the Evidence to Policy Blog I was at the inception of a project intended to redesign vocational education in Accounting. 

 

18 months on a lot has happened and this project is coming to an end. Though my work with the Department for Education in respect to T Levels is likely to continue, I thought it would be a useful opportunity to reflect on my experiences, successes and challenges to date.

 

T Levels are often described as the Department for Education’s best kept secret (more can be found out about it here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/introduction-of-t-levels/introduction-of-t-levels ). In short the are an effort to overhaul vocational further education, reducing the bewildering number of vocational qualifications available to current 18 year olds down to a choice of 25.. 

 

The policy which has cross party support is intended to help the rigour of vocational qualifications and the esteem with which they are held vis-a-vie A Levels.

 

The brief for the T Levels (boiled down) was for a ‘Gold Standard’, 2 year qualification with a 45-90 day work placement, that was ‘fit for the future’ and promote a ‘skills revolution’ required to make Brexit Britain competitive in the future. No tall order then...

 

To address this challenge the Department for Education put a call out for an Employer Panel for each T Level. The Accounting panel was made up of a range of employers from accounting practice and industry, professional bodies as well as representatives from academia (with me falling in to the latter two categories, with some experience of the first). I was delighted and humbled to discover that the panel of approximately 20 had been drawn from hundreds of applications, rather than only a small number (as is often the case with voluntary work).

 

So have we been successful?

 

Broadly, yes, the Accounting Employer Panel has delivered its ‘wire frame’ - the outline content for the qualification - on time. It has gone out to public consultation, received broadly positive  feedback and the qualification will soon go out to awarding bodies for tender.

 

From a personal perspective, I think the outline content is innovative, rigorous and relevant - a qualification that can compete against others offered in the subject area at Level 3.

 

So job done then?

 

In a technical sense yes, the Employer Panel has met its terms of reference and can therefore disband.

 

However, as someone who is now invested in the qualification’s success... No! Several challenges remain, some routine, some more strategic:

 

Delivery - The awarding bodies still need to develop the qualification from outline content, to what is delivered and assessed in the classroom. This will need continued input from the Employer panel to provide instruction and clear up any areas of confusion.
Placements - The work placement needs more thought and engagement with industry. If I am frank, I think the Department for Education’s approach to work placements was a little naive at the outset. There was little appreciation of the disruption and potential cost of bringing work placement students into a complex business environment. Government needs to be lobbied to release further funding to support the work placement at SME’s and perhaps to permit large businesses to drawn down on the Apprenticeship Levy funds to make providing work placements more palatable to business.
Funding - Further Education needs better funding to deliver the T Levels. I’m completely agree that the Government is aiming for a ‘Gold Standard’ and I think we have gone some way to achieve that. However, FE needs to attract the professionals to teach them. In the case of the subjects like Accounting, Finance and Law (and others) I have real concerns that the salary levels currently offered in FE are potentially insufficient to attract and retain staff appropriately qualification to teach the new T Levels.
Publicity - T Levels needs a huge marketing exercise. A Levels have often been seen as the qualification of choice and have the incumbent advantage. If students, teachers, parents, further and higher education providers, employers and other stakeholders are to embrace T Levels they need to know about them and trust them in order for them to be a qualification of choice to rival A Levels. My early impression is that the Department for Education underestimated this task and substantial additional resources are needed now and over the coming years to achieve parity of awareness.
 

Lessons learned personally:

 

When something is unclear say so. This is advice we all too easily offer our students and then neglect to act on ourselves. Though curriculum design is something I am familiar with, working with the government is something I’m not. It’s all too easy to stay quiet to avoid professional embarrassment - I thank the Panel Chair for her regular ‘stupid questions’ which gave all of us the confidence to ask our own when we were unclear on a matter.
Keep calm and influence people - the Accounting Employers Panel has been cohesive and has worked very well together. However, working on a panel of 20 means that there are inevitably going to times where differing points of view are being expressed. By nature, I am probably someone who talks too much (though my panel members may well think that is still the case). I witnessed the damage caused by one panel member having something to say on pretty much everything and the detriment that had when arguing on one point they felt most strongly about.
Watch out for vested interests and if you feel something is wrong, call it out. On only a few occasions the Panel, collectively, felt that something was wrong (be it feedback from a consultation or a matter of policy). With none of the Panel likely to take a T Level (all having qualified some time ago) and time being precious, it would have been easy to capitulate whenever we received feedback we disagreed with, just to keep things moving. However, it’s important to stand your ground when you need to, though it can be intimidating to do so and offer the harder option, it’s rewarding when you see necessary changes (pick your battles) as a result.
 

Implications for Higher Education providers and the University of Southampton:

 

As I discussed in my previous blog the Government’s commitment to higher apprenticeships, funded by the Apprenticeship Levy and the new T-Levels will prove a compelling alternative to traditional academic study; laying down a gauntlet to Business Schools and other faculties affected by the new landscape in education.  

 

For us here at Southampton substantial time and effort will need be invested by us in our revalidation of our Accounting and Finance programme to ensure we have an enduring offering that provides a graduate premium that allows us to compete in the market for the best and brightest students.