‘T-levels’ to boost skills for life after Brexit

BRITISH teenagers are to be offered a new qualification in a multi-billionpound shake-up of technical education: the “T-level”.

The courses – designed to rival to Alevels – will be offered to 16- to 19-yearolds and will teach vocational skills such as engineering and construction.

Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, will announce what has been described as the “most ambitious post-16 education reforms” in 70 years in Wednesday’s Budget. More than £500million a year will eventually be spent on the reforms to help prepare the economy for Brexit.

Ministers are determined to make technical training as enticing as university for bright and ambitious teenagers. Improving technical education is seen as a way to both raise the country’s “weak” productivity rate and fill skills gaps. A panoply of 13,000 different technical qualifications will be replaced by just 15 courses. A provisional list of subjects include engineering and manufacturing, business and administration, catering and hospitality, construction and social care.

A Treasury source said: “Now we’re leaving Europe we really need to up our game on this stuff. We cannot wait.”

THE biggest overhaul of post-16 education in 70 years will be announced this week in a multi-billion pound drive to improve technical training.

Philip Hammond will unveil “radical” plans to put technical education on an equal footing with academic studies in his Budget on Wednesday.

The current system, where students have to pick from 13,000 different qualifications, will be replaced with just 15 standalone courses.

Teenagers who take the technical training, such as courses to become an engineer or builder, will spend 50 per cent longer learning than they do now, equalling 900 hours of teaching a year.

And the whole drive will be funded by more than £500 million a year agreed by the Treasury once the scheme is up and running.

The reforms – which will see the courses dubbed “T-levels”, the technical version of A-levels – are designed to help ensure the UK economy is “match fit” for Brexit.

Possible titles for the 15 different “Tlevel” courses include engineering and manufacturing, business and administrative, catering and hospitality, construction and social care.

Investment in education will be one of the central themes of Mr Hammond’s first Budget, according to Treasury sources. The Chancellor is expected to have an extra £12billion to play with thanks to the economy growing more quickly than was forecast last autumn.

More money for elderly and disabled care and measures to help small firms worst hit by business rate rises are due to be announced. A crackdown on confusing and misleading small print will also be unveiled, with the terms and conditions used by mobile phone providers and online shops targeted.

More radical reforms are expected to be kept back until the autumn, when the annual Budget will be held in the future after a shake-up.

The Chancellor, who has been in the post for little over six months, is understood to want to keep any unexpected extra money back in case the economy worsens during Brexit negotiations. However he has revealed his determination to get the UK prepared for life after the EU with a “radical” overhaul of technical education.

The UK is placed 16 out of the world’s 20 developed economies when it comes to how many people have a technical education.

Mr Hammond is determined to put technical training on the same footing as university education to help boost productivity ahead of Brexit.

A Treasury source said: “Now that we’ve leaving Europe we really need to up our game on this stuff. We cannot wait. We will soon be competing with every other country after Brexit.”

The Chancellor has agreed to fund a plan by Lord Sainsbury, the Cambridge University chancellor and former Sainsbury’s supermarket executive.

Lord Sainsbury said: “The news that the Government is to commit significant investment to the development of technical education should be welcomed by everyone who cares about increasing national prosperity and improving social mobility.

“Targeted investment of this type makes economic sense. Our international competitors recognised long ago that investing in technical education is essential to enhancing national productivity.”

The 16- to 19-year-olds who take the training will be able to get student loans. It is hoped the 15 “T-level” courses would be rolled out from 2019 and completed by 2020, by which time the Government would be spending £500 million a year on the drive.

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said he would be working with the Government to design the system, adding that people must have the “confidence, support and opportunities to adapt” in their working life after Brexit.

Last night Mr Hammond said: “As we begin our negotiations with the European Union we are embarking on a new chapter in our history. We may face unexpected challenges in the months and years ahead as we forge our vision of Britain’s future in the world.”