New Industry Placement Guidance: Updated approaches to support industry placements
Industry placements are a vital component of the T Level programme, ensuring students gain valuable, hands-on experience and are fully prepared to progress into skilled employment or further study.
Employers are telling us that placements offer a valuable pipeline of talent – giving them early access to a pool of motivated and skilled individuals. Employers also have the opportunity to shape the skills and competencies of their future workforce and we have been delighted to see around one-third of students progress onto an apprenticeship or employment with their industry placement employer.
In December 2024, the department announced an updated set of industry placement delivery approaches, with guidance to be published in January 2025. This updated guidance is now live, and the changes can be implemented from this date onwards. You can access the guidance here which provides comprehensive end-to-end guidance on delivering industry placements, including an update of:
- the industry placement core principles,
- the list of expectations for providers and employers,
- the industry placement delivery approaches, including a new diagram on how approaches can be used in combination,
- support available to providers,
- how to record and upload student data, and
- how to manage a placement withdrawal or breakdown
As we continue to grow the T Level programme, industry placements will need to be secured for an increasing number of students, across a variety of sectors and in different parts of the country.
Our updated guidance and delivery approaches are designed to unlock opportunities for students and adapt to the evolving demands of industry; improving access for those in geographically remote locations, ensuring students develop hands-on experience in safe and controlled environments and helping grow the number of high-quality placements that can be offered. There is no expectation that these delivery approaches should be used if unsuitable for a student or the employer or sector they are working with.
We will continue to set clear guidelines and best practice case studies of what a high-quality placement looks like and will share these examples once they are live.
Webinar on Industry placement delivery approaches and how they might work for you:
View our recent webinar here:
In the meantime if you have any questions, you can get in touch with us at industry.placements@education.gov.uk
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