Department for Education

The Department for Education is responsible for children’s services and education, including early years, schools, higher and further education policy, apprenticeships and wider skills in England.

The Department is a ministerial department supported by 18 agencies and public bodies. Their vision is to provide world-class education, training and care for everybody, whatever their background, giving everyone the opportunity to reach their potential, and live a more fulfilled life.

The Project

The Department was overseeing the development and design of the new T-Levels qualifications. These are a new set of qualifications which are available after GCSEs, and equivalent to 3 A-Levels.

The T-Levels are two year courses, which offer students a mixture of classroom and practical “on the job” experience during an industry placement or internship with a minimum of 315 hours work.

The Department openly requested the assistance of employers and academic specialists in designing these new qualifications to ensure that only the most appropriate and relevant outputs were delivered. Due to his specific expertise in these areas, Strategic Discourse’s Managing Director was hand picked to assist in this process, something that the entire organisation is incredibly proud of.

Working with other key industry leaders and academic professionals, the T-Levels were designed and launched on time and to the required levels of quality for both the Department for Education and the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.

Our Approach

Unlike other engagements, the approach taken here was to work closely with a larger number of business and academic leads from around the UK.

Strategic Discourse’s Managing Director was able to bring his expertise as a current associate professor, as well as his business experience, to this role in order to ensure that these areas were considered by all.

The closeness of the entire team working on this (with some of the largest global employers and academics from great UK institutions) ensured that the T-Levels were designed in a manner which supports all students in their next steps following GCSEs.

Due to the highly confidential nature of the work, the team ensured that the correct systems were in place at Strategic Discourse to carefully secure all information in relation of this assignment.

Strategic Discourse systems are fully compliant with all Data Protection regulations (including the Data Protection Act (2018) and the General Data Protection Regulations (2018)), as well as complying fully with other regulations and local requirements in the areas of education, healthcare, social care, and various global regulations.

The Outcome

The T-Levels were launched on schedule in 2020, with further T-Levels to be released between 2021-2023.

Strategic Discourse are neither a provider of T-Levels, or involved with setting examinations or any other areas of the qualification. Various national providers exist, and more information on the T-Levels is available from the DfE website.

However, Strategic Discourse will always support this important qualification which ensures wider choice and better outcomes for many students nationwide.

Strategic Discourse is strongly supportive of multiple leaning methods, understanding that apprenticeship-led qualifications provide many students with a more holistic approach to education.

Since the launch of the T-Levels, The Managing Director of Strategic Discourse has continued to support the Department and Institute by participating in various webinars to help promote the new qualification, and to assist employers in better understanding of the benefits of the T-Levels.