Industry placement stories: full video transcript

Voice over

Welcome to this industry placement stories video, which features employers, students and providers talking about their positive experiences of industry placements for T Level students. It's in seven short sections dealing with different aspects of T Level placements. Click on the menu to go straight to a section or watch the video all through. It lasts around 8 minutes. There are also separate videos going into more detail about each aspect. Click on the link to find them.

Benefits to employers

Voiceover

Here you'll see some of the ways in which employers benefit by offering placements to T Level students, such as helping to fill skill gaps and bringing in new ideas.

Dan Bridgewater – Baily Garner

The long term benefits of T Levels to me are that there is a skills gap within the construction industry. It's only going to improve the quality of candidates that will be coming through the pipeline and ultimately reduce the skills gap.

John Cole - CTECH Business Solutions

It's not just the ability to actually have more bums on seats, but it's also the ability of actually having a different view because it's just having those little moments of inspiration that the T Level students can give us, which can give us a different view of how we're going to look at something and then we can drive it forward.

Benefits to Students

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This shows just how great industry placements are for students who get to experience the reality of working life and find better informed choices about where to start their careers.

Alister Broadberry – Morgan Sindall

The T Levels, any educational experience is great, but it's not as great as the reality that we get on site, hopefully to inspire them to a wide range of careers that are available in construction.

Hannah Rumson - CTECH Business Solutions

I think being on a placement helps students when they're looking for a job because it provides them with the skills and experience they need from having a professional appearance when they go into the office to working in a team of people they wouldn't necessarily have worked with before.

Ahana – Design, surveying and planning for construction, T Level student

I was like, I wasn't that confident honestly last year and I feel like this has really boosted my confidence, talking to new people.

Max – Digital production, design and development T Level student

If someone is thinking about it and contemplating, I think they should just go for it because the amount of work and the amount of stuff you learn with the work placement, I think it's just an all round package.

Benefits to staff

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Staff involved in T Level placements benefit from supporting their students, too by learning about themselves and developing their skills as supervisors and mentors.

Alister Broadberry – Morgan Sindall

So I think the teams benefit in a number of ways. They get to share their experience and knowledge that sharing makes them feel good. They get to see people come into the industry that then they work alongside and they know that, you know, that person is growing because of the input that they're giving to them. And I think that makes the individual that is sharing that knowledge and experience you know, not only they feel good about it, but they sort of grow in themselves. It's nice to help others to learn.

Cam Ritchie – Morgan Sindall

To mentoring him and to take on board the ways he likes to learn and that's opened me up a bit more as a person in the management role that people are different. You have to adapt to different people.

Hannah Rumson - CTECH Business Solutions

I've benefited myself from looking after the students because. It also shows me how far I've come personally to go from being, you know, a student myself to now guiding them through and noticing how much I've learned. And I see them as part of my team. I see them as you know, my colleagues who I get to work with who really kind of push me as well because they say, oh, why don't we do it this way? And ideas and opportunities that I haven't even thought of

Nneka Smith – Cambridge University Hospitals

It's just a good opportunity for us to link and bond with new people and learn things ourselves. The thing about working in Healthcare is that you're always learning something whether you are the professional or not, you will learn something.

Meaningful work and projects

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One of the best things about T Level industry placements is that they are real jobs. Students genuinely contribute to the organization, carrying out projects, dealing with customers and becoming a part of the team.

Alistair Easterfield – Cambridge Academy for Science and Technology

What we want is a meaningful placement. So we'll be looking at the students developing as they move through the placement. So we want them to be doing jobs that are going to be commensurate with the courses they're doing in the skills that they're learning.

Marcus Lewis – Baily Garner

She is doing real work. It's vital we actually get a real experience. The level that she's at, she's more than capable, more than competent and we actually like to get her Involved in real projects because she gets to see what we're doing and she gets to see the reasons why we're doing it. You know, it might seem weird at the moment doing a kitchen elevation, but it's a specific task that we actually get to.

Andy Dennahy - CTECH Business Solutions

We put them on real work. We don't invent projects for them, so the work we get to do is actually customer facing work. So some of it is adapting websites, social media posts and even developing complete websites for our customers.

Pannaji - Design, surveying and planning for construction, T Level student

I've got enough responsibilities where I'm actually not having to just sit there waiting for something to do. Like I know when I come on site I might have to go do this today.  I’ve got a lot of freedom on site then what I thought I would have had.

Ahana - Design, surveying and planning for construction, T Level student

Well currently I'm being going on site like every week just to see how the project is. We could be doing levelling work right now, setting out. So it's really interesting 'cause I don't really get to do it in school, so seeing it done on site and actually helping, it's really fun.

Planning and provider links

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This section shows that a little planning goes a long way in making industry placements a great experience. And as you'll see, you're never alone.  Colleges and training providers help at every stage.

 Dan Bridgewater – Baily Garner

So Bailey Garner and BAM are part of the Thomas Telford UTC employer group. So from our perspective as a business, the most important aspects of planning placement are working with the UTC right from the outset and understanding exactly what the student needs to cover as part of their placement. That way we can ensure that Serena has been working with the right people, on the right projects and giving her the best experience possible.

 Julia Schumann-Pratt – Cambridge University Hospitals

I think from an organisation perspective in planning placements, the key things to think about is liaising with your areas early. First discussions with the heads of the areas and the departments, what are T Levels, what is required, what is expected of them, what can they offer and then thinking about your recruitment process. What do they need to be in your organisation?

Diversity and inclusion

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Having a diverse workforce and an inclusive approach is tremendously beneficial to employers. And as you'll see here, T Level placements are a great way of bringing young people from all backgrounds into the organization.

Phil Eves, BAM Construct UK

When it comes to young women coming into construction or people from ethnic backgrounds, what we're finding is that a lot of these students are applying to go on T Level courses. So we're not actually having to market this necessarily as an opportunity out to particular groups, which is quite refreshing.

Nneka Smith – Cambridge University Hospitals

The NHS does aim and strive to be an inclusive employer and we have many ways in which we're trying to achieve that. But in this example for T Levels, the inclusivity comes in the sense that they get an opportunity to see what options there are for them. Not everybody wants to go down the standard degree route and some people might want to do an apprenticeship. Some people might want to go down other pathways and I think T Levels is a really great opportunity to open up those channels for the students involved.

Practicalities and Logistics

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Industry placements are genuinely simple to plan and deliver well, and the processes employers use to support anyone new to the organisation are just as valid for T Level students, as you'll see here.

Nneka Smith – Cambridge University Hospitals

Bringing a student into the work environment is exactly the same as bringing a new employee in.

Phil Eves, BAM Construct UK

I have to watch things from a safeguarding perspective, so I have got to have a half an eye on making sure that all these students are safe whilst they're on placement and they feel safe.

Julia Schumann-Pratt – Cambridge University Hospitals

If you're working on a ward, what do they need? So we've looked at our health care support workers, the mandatory training they receive before they're allowed out into the ward areas to work.  And we've adapted that to work with health for T Levels.

 Voiceover

To hear what else employers, students and providers have to say about T Level industry placements, click on the link for more details on the seven aspects covered in this industry placement stories video.