Introducing T levels and how we support students and parents

In December 2022 I wrote my first blog relating to T Levels and how the University of Portsmouth is positively embracing them as a route into higher education. By way of a reminder and for the uninitiated here is a brief recap of what a T Level is.

What are T Levels?

They are two-year courses developed with industry that are taken after GCSEs and are roughly equivalent to three A Levels. They combine classroom learning and ‘on-the-job’ experience during an industry placement. They are large and intensive programmes, so students cannot take A levels alongside them, and the government are slowly defunding BTECs as similar T Levels replace them.

How University of Portsmouth supports the development of T Levels

In my role as Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education Partnerships), I work very closely with our local colleges and have been supporting them with the development of their T Levels programmes. One of the challenges faced by the colleges has been the newness of the qualifications and parental confusion over their purpose and place in post-16 education. Working with our partner colleges I set up some specific college and university development sessions. College staff visited the University to inform our teams about their programme developments and we acted as partners and a critical friend for them in the development of their T Levels programmes.

It also allowed the University to identify equipment and resources that would support teachers and students in the delivery of their T Levels programmes, while providing expert advice from our senior academics. In an effort to promote the programme to parents who were skeptical of T Levels, I arranged for the Vice Chancellor to develop a video that demonstrated how we welcome students who have successfully completed a T Level to the University. We shared this video with our partner colleges and many have placed that video on their T Levels website pages and they also play it at college open events

This is just the tip of the work we’ve been doing to reassure prospective students and parents about the T Levels qualifications. I'm looking forward to providing more details in future blogs, as well as sharing some case studies of students who studied T Levels and are now doing a degree at the University of Portsmouth.

Mark Cooper is Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education Partnerships) at the University of Portsmouth.