Civil Service Organisations: T Level Industry Placement Journey - Delivery

Give the student meaningful experience of working and learning

Outcome

The student has learned to use their knowledge and skills effectively in a range of work situations, developed positive attitudes and behaviours, grown in confidence, and understands their career options better

Key steps

1 - Onboarding Introduce the student into the organisation and help them adjust to their roles and responsibilities
2 - Tasks and Projects Create tasks and projects that give the student a meaningful experience of work in your environment
3 - Support Supervise and support the student and help them deal with any challenges they face, including to their mental health and wellbeing
4 - Progress Make opportunities for the student to learn new knowledge and skills progressively throughout the placement, give frequent feedback and review progress regularly
5 - Pathways Help the student to understand the opportunities open to them after they finish their T Level and to choose the next step in their early career
6 - Post-placement  Review the student’s achievements against their learning objectives, review their experience of the placement, and agree next steps

 

Onboarding

Onboarding can take several weeks for new employees but should be much quicker for industry placement students. It typically includes:

  • A planned and structured induction programme introducing the student to their team and work environment
  • A period of close supervision as the student finds their feet, builds relationships in their team, starts to show competence, and grows in confidence

You can carry out the onboarding process efficiently and well by:

  • Adapting your normal practice for apprentices and other new recruits
  • Designing the process with the department or team hosting the student 
  • Assigning the student a line manager and mentor or buddy  to welcome them and show them the ropes
  • Allowing enough time for the student to settle in and gain confidence

Examples

FCDO Services uses a simple three-stage approach to onboard a student:

  1. A structured first day including:
  2. Welcome meeting for the student with the line manager
  3. Tour around the department to meet people, settle in at their workstation, and see facilities such as the kitchen and toilets
  4. Meeting with their buddy, going to lunch together, making sure they know what will happen on their next visit

An initial block of three days on site for the student to come in, meet the team and get a feel for the work environment. During these three days the student:

  1. Completed mandatory training
  2. Covered health and safety requirements
  3. Had a tour of the rest of the organisation as well as their own department
  4. Discussed what they would be doing each week of their placement 
  5. Planned extra activities relevant to their placement, such as going to events and work trips

Booking reviews with the student and their line manager and explaining to the student that the reviews are a good opportunity for them to:

  1. Talk about how the placement is going
  2. Discuss any concerns they have
  3. Plan activities for the next few weeks
  4. Talk more generally about their future career opportunities
  5. Keep their provider up to date with progress on the placement

Students starting their placements in the DfE have a week-long induction. The daily timetable for the week includes:

  • Office tour
  • Time with the line manager
  • Meetings with other members of the team
  • Introductory work tasks
  • Time for reflection

Downloads

DfE Template Induction Timetable

Further resources

Day 1 induction checklist

 

Tasks and projects

Many people learn by doing and T Level students are no exception. Many students choose to study T Levels because the knowledge and skills learned in the classroom, laboratory or simulated environment can be applied in real-work situations during their industry placements.

Your provider will work with you to identify the kinds of tasks that a student can benefit from. They may suggest that you:

  • Look in detail at entry-level roles in your organisation
  • Identify which tasks would be suitable for students to start developing their skills
  • Define a project which the student can work on to deepen their knowledge and extend their skills.

You can create tasks and projects that give students a meaningful experience of work in your environment by:

  • Making them relevant – help students to develop skills and attitudes that are  most important in their placement role and the early years of their career
  • Varying them throughout the placement – give students a mix of routine and none-routine activities so they develop a broad range of skills
  • Combining realistic and challenging goals – build students’ confidence in the basics before supporting them to carry out more difficult or complex tasks
  • Building autonomy – give students plenty of supervision at first and then encourage greater independence when they have shown they are competent

As well as gaining in technical ability, students learn professional behaviours and attitudes to work during their placement. Opportunities to cultivate a positive perception of working in the Civil Service include:

  • Involving students in meetings, briefings and presentations
  • Giving them a role in internal events
  • Encouraging them to participate in the social side of work
  • Enabling them to take part in one of the Civil Service’s professional networks

“We need to create and normalise a culture where everyone is engaged with their personal and professional development”

Nick Walker, Deputy Director in the UK Cabinet Office’s Civil Service HR Directorate

 

Examples

The work students do in their placements at the DfE is determined by the line manager as much as possible. Most have an idea of what they want the student to do when they put in a bid for a placement. They understand that the work their student is given must help them to achieve their learning objectives and must also give the student an authentic experience of working in the team.

The industry placement team within the DfE:

  • Checks and confirms that line managers are going about it in the right way
  • Suggests tasks and projects if the line manager isn’t sure what to do with the student

They also encourage a collaborative approach to placement delivery by reaching out to the wider team or the wider directorate, asking things like, ‘Does anybody have any projects or sprints they'd like the student to work on?’

This collective approach helps to get students involved with the work of the whole department or directorate and gives them a real breadth of experience.

When line managers at the DWP bid for placements via DWP Digital they are asked to give ideas for a project or some other piece of meaningful work that the student will complete during the placement.

As well as setting up projects and work tasks that are suitable for the student, managers are also encouraged to find out what the student is interested in and provide other development opportunities such as:

  • Career conversations
  • Shadowing opportunities
  • Other projects they can get involved in.

 

Further resources

Planning the content of an industry placement

Planning industry placement projects and tasks

 

Support

The student’s line manager is the main source of support.

The student should also have a work-based mentor. The mentor’s role is to:

  • Help the student settle in
  • Keep in touch with the student
  • Enhance their overall experience in the workplace

Experienced apprentices make good candidates for this role. Apprentices may also act as a buddy. Buddying is more flexible and informal than mentoring. It is usually geared towards giving help and advice to the student as they join a new department or team.

Line managers must make sure that the appropriate supervision and support for the student is in place, even in locations where hybrid and remote working are normal. Here are some approaches they could consider:

  • If staff are rotating their presence on-site, they could share day-to-day responsibility for a student
  • Tell the provider which days of the week on-site supervision is available, so that they can arrange the student’s timetable accordingly
  • Assign apprentices and junior staff as workplace mentors – line managers are not the only source of support

For some students, a T Level industry placement will be their first time in a workplace. This can be exciting but can also make students feel nervous, anxious or overwhelmed. The following suggestions can help to support students’ wellbeing while they are on their placement:

  • Line managers and mentors can be alert to possible wellbeing concerns
  • Prompt communication with the provider will allow the student to access appropriate support
  • Reasonable adjustments can be kept under review during the placement

The Academy team at the ONS try to make the day-to-day for students during their industry placement as supported as possible. In addition to line managers within their teams, students are allocated a buddy to support them on the days they are in the office. There is a strong Community of Practice within Infrastructure Engineering at the ONS, and students are part of that as well. The Academy team also checks in with them on a regular basis.

Students find that these relationships give them a good framework of support for everything they do during their placement days.

The DfE has an informal mentoring scheme for placement students. Line managers are encouraged to think about assigning their student a buddy to pair up with. The buddy is usually someone the student can relate to as a peer, such as a junior member of staff who is close to the student in age and grade, who can get quite close to them and walk them through the experience of working in a Civil Service environment.

Where several students are on a placement in the same team or division, they are encouraged to buddy up with each other. The department’s student support network helps with this by inviting placement students into regular drop-ins where they can come along and talk or network with other students from elsewhere.

Further resources

Effective mentoring for industry placement students

Supporting students' health and wellbeing on placement

Supporting industry placement students with special educational needs and disabilities

 

Progress

Placements should be designed so that students can make progress throughout, from start to finish. These steps are a guide:

  • Start with tasks which the students can do comfortably
  • Give them new tasks to learn, with close supervision, strong direction and clear daily objectives to provide a support structure
  • Extend the range and complexity of tasks as the student becomes more confident and self-assured
  • Let the student take responsibility as soon as they’re ready to take on new tasks, manage their own time, or ‘own’ parts of projects
  • Help the student to see themselves as a professional by giving them opportunities to learn more about other departments and roles and get more involved in projects

Give the student frequent feedback. Feedback is most useful when it’s clear and concise, based on observable behaviour, and balanced – both positive and constructive. It can be given:

  • Immediately, at the time the student is carrying out a task
  • In daily or weekly one-to-ones
  • In progress reviews

Regular reviews of progress help the student to know:

  • What they’re doing well
  • Where they’re not meeting expectations
  • How they can improve

Reviews can take place at regular intervals, e.g. once a month, or at the end of a period where the placement is split into different blocks. Use reviews to:

  • Give the student an overview of how they’re doing
  • Discuss what the student has learned
  • Tell the student where the next few weeks will take them
  • Find out what the student thinks about the placement and how it could work better.

Reviews should include the student, their line manager and mentor, and the provider if possible.

Downloads

DfE T Level industry placements reflective log

Further resources

Helping students learn

 

Pathways

There are various opportunities open to T Level students when they finish their T Level. The three main ones are:

pathways 1.png

Other opportunities are also available, such as these:

pathways 2.png

You should discuss these and other relevant pathways with the student during the placement. Don’t leave it until the end, especially if you want to explore opportunities for the student to join your organisation afterwards.

If the student is thinking of an early career in your organisation, you should provide advice on applying for a new job in the Civil Service including:

  • Producing and tailoring a professional CV
  • Knowing what to expect at assessment centres
  • Interview techniques

The occupational maps produced by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education show how T Levels link to technical, higher technical and professional occupations and qualifications.

The ONS sees every T Level student who moves from an industry placement to an apprenticeship as a return on investment.

Lara Middleton, Senior Government Digital and Data Delivery Manager, said: “Our teams are more than happy to support entry-level talent schemes and in this instance, develop them through the T Levels scheme. They’ve invested a lot of time with us, in fact over the minimum hours required, because of how much they’ve enjoyed it. We have also invested a lot of time in helping them develop, and as a result are encouraging them to continue to develop their skills with us.

“It's an exciting area to be working in. There is a real drive on building entry-level schemes, and it is so rewarding. It is lovely to see students and candidates become comfortable with roles, develop their skills and even secure promotion.

“It’s good to be part of growing that entry pipeline. I am really excited to watch the journey continue for the T level students.”

For ONS it is important to check that students have both the skills and behaviours  to be taken on as employees. For that reason, as well as a requirement to pass their T Level course, students also need to pass an internal assessment. 

By completing their apprenticeship successfully as an Administrative Officer, students should have the skills and level of knowledge to be able to apply for posts at Executive Officer grade.

At the DfE, a common thread linking everyone involved with industry placement is that they care about the students and what happens to them. As one of its T Level champions, Bex Barclay, says:

“A lot of the conversations I've heard line managers having with their student is, you know, ‘What's next, what are you thinking of doing after the exams, can I help in any way?’, or ‘I'm happy to read a personal statement for you’.”

Even when the student doesn’t move on to an apprenticeship in the department, the industry placement team aims to keep the relationship warm:

“You know, we might be able to kind of get back in touch with students and invite them to take part in our apprenticeships or go for skilled employment with us.

“Because it's such a shame to have students with you for nine weeks, and to watch them blossom, give them all the skills, give them all the lingo, watch them behave like civil servants, and then to send them off and not really stay in touch.

“So obviously we'd love to support them into the next stages of their apprenticeship or employment journey, or even just offer them informal advice about universities, higher education, that type of thing.”

Further resources

Progression and Retention Routes for T Level Students

Student Progression with T Levels

 

Post-placement

When the placement ends:

  • Contribute to the end-of-placement review, by giving feedback on the student’s commitment, achievements and behaviours and summarising the practical skills the student has gained
  • Tell the student what you think they’ve achieved during the placement, based on how well they’ve progressed and whether they have achieved their learning
  • Write an appraisal summarising the student’s achievements and commitment, for them to use in the future
  • Consider offering the student further temporary work or part-time employment until they take the next step in their early career
  • Review the benefits of the placement to you and the organisation

Further resources

End-of-placement review with the student

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