Why Would Employers Value T Levels?

If you didn’t know already, T Levels are a two-year qualification for 16–19-year-olds designed in collaboration with employers.  

Each T Level is equivalent to 3 A Levels, with the aim to support the young person to develop their skills, knowledge and to thrive in the workplace. 

There are various reasons why students would want to embark on a T Level. For one it gives them a chance to decide what they truly want to do while getting practical experience in the real world, while gaining and recognised qualification, but why would employers be interested?  

Employers have plenty of reasons to want to get involved, it could be any of the following:  

• It brings your business a chance to mentor effectively 

• New talent can present itself 

• You can shape the future of your business and a young person 

• It can bring diversity and new ways of working to your organisation 

But what is the experience like and what are the reasons people have signed up to bring T Level students here?  
 
We spoke to two organsiations that are working with the College to find out: 

Lesley Bavin, a Clinical Placement Facilitator for Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals NHS Group has been in the post since August 2024 and has been responsible for placing T-Level students across the county.  

So far, she has been working with both Lincoln College and the various hospitals across the county to place T-Level students, particularly 1^st and 2^nd year students. 

Lesley explains: “When we take on T-Level students in their first year we often give them three weeks of a broader intro into healthcare in general. This is not just nursing, but diverse roles like Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, X-Ray and wider patient care.  

“When we take on students in their second year, we focus them more on one area to really give them a semblance of value related to what they want to specialise in. 

“In the future, first year students will have a much wider exposure to elements they want to specialise in, we work with the whole of Lincolnshire, usually the main hospitals but we do include the broader Lincolnshire Community Hospitals Trust (LCHT) that takes in smaller locations such as Spalding, Gainsborough and Skegness. 

“We see T-Level placements as a way of attracting young people to a career in the NHS and to keep talent within the county in general. Lincolnshire is a place where often young people think they need to leave or move to a larger city to succeed or train for their future and we want to really show them that there are opportunities here too. These include embarking on an apprenticeship with us. For example, a T-Level is the perfect route for a Nurse Associate Apprenticeship, and we have links with the University of Lincoln to foster this further. 

“Our vision is that we can look after people all across their career and at no cost to employers it’s a really good way to lead them into a lot of pathways, even for careers like care and related disciplines.” 

T-Levels Placement Coordinator at The Wildlife Trusts, Isla Geis King, said: “We are delighted to be offering T-Level industry placements for the first time at different locations across England. As a movement of Wildlife Trusts working to restore nature across the UK, we’re excited to be able to offer a unique opportunity for a Lincoln College student at our central team’s Newark office. 

“In collaboration with the College, we have recently welcomed our very first Management & Administration T-Level student. They will be working with us for one day a week over several months, getting introduced to various areas of our organisation’s work and gaining a range of experience, all while exploring different knowledge and skills relevant to their course and future career.  

“We see work placements like T-Levels as an important route into our sector, particularly for people from backgrounds that are currently under-represented. Although we are a conservation charity, we offer a breadth of roles across different disciplines. Skilled and enthusiastic colleagues in teams like fundraising, HR and finance are all essential to our success, so you don’t need to be a nature expert to excel in a role with us – though if you develop an interest along the way, that’s obviously great! 

“We hope our T-Levels placement programme will enable us to reach people who aren’t yet aware of our work, or the diversity of career opportunities in the environmental sector. Having our first student on board is helping us learn how we can better support and attract people into the organisation through vocational pathways. We’re working hard to remove barriers to accessing careers at the Wildlife Trusts if you do not follow a higher education route, and this is an important step on that journey. 

We anticipate spending several months with our student will be mutually beneficial, providing time to learn and develop while delivering genuinely impactful work.”