Activate Learning excited to offer new T Level qualifications from September 2022

Guildford College, part of the Activate Learning group, is pleased to announce that it will be offering a new T Level qualification  in Health (Adult Nursing) from September 2022.

This follows the opening of the college’s LEP funded Care Skills Training Centre last year, which is designed to enable  students to practise and refine the skills they need to make them ready for life in the workplace whilst learning in a realistic, simulated setting.

What are T Levels?

The new Technical Level (T Level) programmes offer a strong alternative to A Levels or an apprenticeship.

T Levels are employer led qualifications, which follow on from GCSEs and carry the equivalent UCAS points as three A Levels. They have been co-designed with 250 leading employers, so students can gain the knowledge and skills they need to either progress on to degree level education or start their career once they have completed their programme. 

Combining 80% classroom learning and 20%industry placement, the two-year programmes have been designed for students who prefer a more technical education when they come to college, rather than following a purely academic pathway, or a work-based apprenticeship.

The industry placements are nine weeks in length and carried out across the two-year programme- meaning that students will be able to put the skills they have learned in the classroom into practice, giving them valuable and meaningful work experience. 

Salwa Boon, Curriculum Design Director responsible for the roll-out of T Levels at Activate Learning, said:

“We are very excited to extend our T Level offer in September 2022 by introducing new T Levels in Engineering and Business: Management and Administration.

“We believe T Levels are exciting new qualifications, that have been developed with even greater input from employers across the relevant sectors and give students a unique opportunity to be work ready.

“We have worked hard at Activate Learning to develop a strong network of employer partners, which has opened up amazing opportunities for our students once they have successfully completed their T Level with us. This includes guaranteed interviews for roles, further developmental opportunities and internships.”

“We’ve been able to do this because the employers we are working with recognise how much potential T Levels have. The qualifications provide young people with an amazing blend of academic learning alongside all the rich and varied experiences they will gain within workplace settings.

“They will help to deliver work-ready, employable young people, who will help our local economy meet the challenges of the future.”

With the already successful launch of T Levels at Activate Learning campuses, Reading and City of Oxford colleges in September 2021, the group plan to widen the offering at Guildford College in the 2023/24 academic year. 

T Levels will be available in; Business and Administration, Health, Digital, Engineering, Hair and Beauty and Media Production and Technology with sister campus, Merrist Wood College, offering a T-Level in Animal Management that same year.

T Levels Transition Programme 

In addition, from September 2022,the college will be offering a specialist ‘Transition’ programme aimed at school leavers who are not ready to start a T Level but have the potential to progress onto one. 

This one-year programme will be available in the following subjects: Business and Administration, Health, Digital, Engineering, Hair and Beauty, Media Production and Technology and Animal Management (based at Merrist Wood College).

This programme is specifically designed to develop the skills, experience, knowledge and behaviours to support progression onto a T Level and are aimed to provide learners with a clear understanding of what is involved, as well guaranteeing the man interview of their chosen T Level at the end of the year. 

Go here for more information on the current T Level offering at Guildford College.