University employers hosting industry placements
Introduction
This resource shows:
- Why universities in England host T Level students
- What the benefits are
- How industry placements in universities work
Who it’s for
The resource will be useful for universities that:
- Already host T Level students on industry placements and are planning more
- Are thinking about hosting T Level students for the first time
- Want to create a pipeline of well-motivated candidates for technical roles in the organisation
- Are responsible for technician commitment action plans
What’s in the resource
Talent pipeline and T Levels
The resource starts with an explanation of:
- Why universities need a pipeline of talent at the technician level
- How T Levels and industry placements can help to fill the gaps
Mini-case studies
These describe different approaches taken to T Level industry placements in five universities:
- Careers
- Partnerships
- Social value
- Talent and skills
- Young people’s futures
- Benefits for the university
- Many voices, one message
- Placement programme
- Multiple positives
- Coordination
UCL (University College London)
- Technician commitment
- Progression
Talent pipeline ad T Levels
Why universities need technical talent
Universities face multiple skills gaps and shortages in the technician workforce to support teaching and research.
According to the UK Institute for Technical Skills and Strategy:
“Technical expertise is critical to the success of UK higher education, research and innovation, and the growth of the UK economy. The UK has a shortage of technicians across all sectors, and there are significant challenges impacting the current workforce.”
The table below gives examples of:
- Some of the teaching and research functions carried out by university technicians
- The technical skills needed to carry them out effectively
| Challenge | Function | Technical Skills Required |
| Teaching |
Maintain teaching facilities
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| Support students' hands-on learning experiences |
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| Provide essential support for practical laboratory sessions |
|
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| Research | Maintain complex equipment and systems |
|
| Introduce, operate and maintain new technologies |
|
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| Help to ensure that research projects run effectively |
|
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| Help to bridge academic research with practical applications |
|
How T levels and industry placements can help to fill the gap
Universities and research institutes in England are hosting industry placements in several T Level subjects, including:
- Health and science
- Engineering and manufacturing
- Digital
These placements are mainly hosted within technical teams in different departments. They aim to help universities:
- Raise the level of technical skills in the workforce by motivating young people to consider a career as a skilled technician
- Increase capacity and capability by creating a pipeline of talent for apprenticeships and technician vacancies in their own organisations
As Jo Hartley-Metcalfe, Universities T Level Support Manager at the UK Institute for Technical Skills and Strategy, says:
“This is not just ‘work experience’, this is a fantastic opportunity that will allow young people to immerse themselves in the exciting world of technicians. Hosting T Level science placements within technical teams is just one way universities can increase technical skills to support research and teaching.”
Focus: help aspiring students succeed in business and the professions
Students: 18,000
Employees: 1,800
Technical staff: 70
Technician careers
What’s it like to be a technician in a university? How would you like a chance to become one?
Those are the questions that Aston is asking young people on T Level courses at two colleges in Birmingham. Jiteen Ahmed, Head of Technical Services in the University’s College of Health and Life Sciences, explains:
“We want to work with these colleges, partly because they take a lot of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
“Our aim is to give as many young people as possible the chance to see how a university operates and to learn hands-on scientific techniques alongside our highly experienced technicians.”
Their response has outstripped expectations.
“It’s been a big success. The students we have on industry placements are definitely learning what it’s like to be a technician. They have gained great respect for them as a matter of fact, because they see first-hand the multi-faceted skills they use in our labs and clinical settings.”
Students are equally enthusiastic about the opportunities they see opening up before them.
“Quite honestly, I’ve been taken aback by how much confidence the students have gained during their placement. They probably wouldn’t have even dreamed of a technical career before, never mind coming to work and learn at university.
“Whereas now they have a much firmer understanding of what the technician journey is and how they can become technicians themselves.”
Doors are being opened to young people in other areas too. Students on Engineering and manufacturing T Level are learning new skills and operating state-of-the-art equipment in the university’s College of Engineering and Physical Sciences.
Partnerships
Opportunities to inspire young people even more widely are being explored in the University’s Design Factory (DFB), which partners employers across West Midlands and beyond in creative and innovative solutions to design concepts.
The first industry placements are due to start DFB itself in Jan 2025. Meanwhile, 20 T Level students from colleges in Birmingham and Shropshire have been invited to take part in the 2024 Robot Wars Design Challenge. They will be working in small teams to build a robot, ready to battle it out in a competition next spring.
Business Development Manager Laura Scotland explains:
“By opening this Challenge to students who are on industry placements with smaller employers, we’re bringing them into our fantastic facilities and putting them to work on small team projects as an integral part of their placement.
“The time the students spend on their Challenge in the Design Factory will count towards their industry placement hours.”
T Level providers (schools and colleges) will also benefit from a closer partnership with DFB:
“We’d like to match providers up with our employer network by giving students a chance to share a placement between a college’s own commercial operations and the less familiar environment of a local business.”
Focus: postgraduate university specialising in technology and management
Students: 5,000
Employees: 1,500
Technical staff: 150
Talent and skills
T Levels feed into early careers talent pipeline and degree apprenticeships, says Janet Marshall, Cranfield’s Senior Talent and Development Business Partner and T Level Strategic Adviser:
“They help to get young people from the local area working with us and are a really valuable opportunity to bridge the technical skills gap.”
Jane Hubble, Head of Technical Services in the Environmental Analytical Facility and the University’s lead on the Technician Commitment, agrees:
“Ensuring a succession of technical staff is absolutely critical to universities. We need highly skilled technicians who can work right at the cutting edge of the techniques we use. Engaging with a T Level placement means we can get people right at the start of their career and inspire them to come and work with us.”
Young people’s futures
Working with young people in the area is also a key driver behind Cranfield’s commitment to industry placements, says Maria Levet, T Level Employer Lead:
“Through helping with apprenticeships, I know how important it is for us to work with young people and I’m a keen advocate for giving them a chance. Industry placements are a win-win for all of us.”
Cranfield’s first T Level student, Terry, did his industry placement in one of the University’s research laboratories:
“It’s one of the best decisions I’ve made,” he says. “I’ve been given a wide variety of tasks including dilutions with calculations, sample preparation and calibration of equipment. Most rewarding is putting my theoretical knowledge into practice – it’s really boosted my confidence.”
Hannah Charlotte, a Senior Technician who is also studying towards a degree apprenticeship, is Terry’s supervisor. She agrees with him about the importance of practical tasks:
“Having done an apprenticeship myself I know how important it is to get these experiences for life and a career. We started Terry on low-risk, easy to manage tasks that he could just get on and do. Then as he developed, we could give him different tasks based on his knowledge and experience.”
Hannah sees the benefits of being Terry’s line manager and mentor:
“You gain a lot of skills from managing a T Level placement,” she says. “Personally, it’s really helped me manage everything. It’s been rewarding for the University as well.”
Key benefits for the university
- Develop the talent pool locally
- Build strong connections with local colleges
- Bring fresh perspectives into the workplace
- Provide an extra pair of hands in the placement team
- Develop existing staff
Janet Marshall, who originally set up the T Level industry placement programme at Cranfield, is reassuring about the process:
“When I first dipped my toe into T Levels I was astounded by how much easier they are than setting up an apprenticeship – it was incredibly easy for us as an employer. We’ve set the tone, we’ve set the pace, and the provider has taken on the bulk of the organisation.
And she is equally enthusiastic about extending placements into other ares of the university where technical and professional roles are required:
“At the moment we’re just doing Science T Levels because that’s where we have identified a skills gap. It’s a pilot and has worked incredibly well.
“Now we’re planning to take on T Level students incrementally in more areas, such as engineering, business administration, and media and broadcasting. We want to scale up the programme, definitely.”
Focus: centre of world-class teaching and learning
Students: 35,000
Employees: 6,000
Technical staff: 600
Many voices, one message
The benefits of hosting industry placement students are clear to the university’s senior leaders, including Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Ian Prior:
“Technicians underpin much of our research and teaching so they’re vital for us as a university. T Level students are the first step on that ladder. They allow us to identify from the beginning the people that are interested in this important profession.”
A similar sense of informed commitment is echoed across the organisation, says the university’s Organisational Developer Matt Davies:
“Having T Level placements opens up the university as a potential employer for students who probably hadn’t even thought about that before,”
Jan Brett, Strategic Technical Lead in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, agrees that progression is key:
“I realised that this was the first point at which a young person could potentially enter a technical career – and a perfect opportunity to incorporate an entry level route for 16–18-year-olds into our strategic succession planning.
Being able to diversify our workforce by bringing in that young fresh talent –when we start to see these T Level students being part of the workforce, that’s when we know we’ll have been a success.”
And the T Level students themselves eagerly grasp the chance to:
“do things that I never probably thought were an option” (James)
“come in and enjoy something I do every day” (Will)
“go through a real lab doing real experiments that have real-world uses”(Lennon)
“develop my skills and get the job done” (Daniil)
“think about what I want to do and where I want to work” (James)
“see the different paths I can go through” (Lennon)
T Level students learn technical skills on their industry placements at the University of Liverpool
Placement programme
Placements are available for students doing a Science T Level in the university’s central teaching labs, electron microscopy unit, materials innovation factory, musculoskeletal biology labs and veterinary diagnostic labs:
“I reached out to technical line managers and senior technicians across the science departments and asked them if they would like to volunteer as supervisors and mentors for the students.”
It's still early days, but Jan can see the potential to grow the industry placement programme significantly across the university – especially given how positive the experience has been on all sides:
“It’s great to see the students coming in and enjoying themselves. They have a chance to see us, and we get to know them too.
“One of our first students to finish their T Level had a contract over the summer to carry on a project he’d started working on during the placement, so that shows how valued they are in their teams.
Hopefully, he and other students can become our employees of the future.”
Focus: globally recognised centre of excellence
Students: 44,000
Employees: 12,000
Technical staff: 900
Valuable work
T Level students do doing really valuable work, says Mike Hughes, Teaching Technical Specialist in the Department of Chemistry:
“I don’t have to look over their shoulders, I can leave them to get on with their tasks and I can trust them to do the work well without having to double-check it.”
Mike and his team of six technicians currently look after three T Level students, who come in separately for a day a week during the university term to help set up, test and quality check the equipment used in laboratory classes. Mike’s aim is for the students to work to industry standards, starting with the basics in the early part of their placement and building up to more complex equipment and tasks later on:
“We want the students to step up. When they use chromatography instruments, for example, they need to prepare samples accurately. We make sure they build up this accuracy and reliability all the way through their placement.”
Out of university term time, the students rotate in one-week blocks around different departments in the university such as biomedical, to give them broader experience of laboratory science.
Multiple positives
Students, who are recruited from colleges in the local area, clearly gain a great deal from the experience of working in the team – and so do the team members, says Mike:
“There are multiple positives, one of them being the development of my staff. Being able to mentor T Level students takes them on the next step to supervising people and learning those people management skills.
“And passing on our enthusiasm for practical science to these young people helps to reconnect us all with the reasons why we got into these jobs in the first place.”
Coordination
Mike and his team in the Chemistry Department organise T Level industry placements themselves, but a more coordinated approach is being planned across the University involving the team responsible for apprenticeships.
Colin Baines is the University’s Head of Technical Skills and Development:
“T Levels are a fantastic addition to our programme of activities around early career recruitment. These students offer a fresh perspective, innovative ideas, and diverse skills, and provide the opportunity to make a positive change to our technical workforce.”
The coordinated approach aims to provide a tailored learning journey for each student, including the opportunity for them to experience working in different parts of the university.
“It helps if you have a scheme in place for moving people around the organisation. You’ll have sympathetic internal contacts, and you need those friends because of the timescale – students might end up working for the university, but not straightaway.”
UCL (University College London)
Focus: London’s leading multidisciplinary university
Students: 50,000
Employees: 16,000
Technical staff: 1,000
Technical professionals at UCL come together to celebrate the Technical Staff Showcase 2024
Technician commitment
As part of the efforts to deliver its Technician Commitment action plan, the university has:
- Created a Technical Managers Group to oversee the plan’s implementation
- Established two communities of practice for technical staff
- Developed a new careers framework for technical professionals
- Launched a Technical Skills Development Hub to attract and retain the best technical talent
Hub manager Isabel Goncalves Cattuzzo is leading the development of industry placements.
“We’re new to T Levels at UCL but we can see they are a great opportunity to identify entry-level talent for technical jobs – a kind of ‘try before you buy’ approach.”
Progression
To get the T Level industry placement programme off the ground, Isabel and her Hub colleagues have brought together a group of managers as early adopters. They are now starting to identify schools and colleges that offer relevant T Level courses and matching them to placement opportunities in their teams.
“We hope that when we start to get students coming in to the university, they’ll see what it’s like to work in our biological or laboratory services or in our teaching labs, and they’ll want to stay with us afterwards. Progression into apprenticeships would be a big win for us.”
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