EKC Ashford College has hosted its first T Level Insight Event, aimed at sharing knowledge and learning on the delivery of these qualifications with other education providers.
T Levels are two-year qualifications designed to give learners a head start towards their chosen career. They offer an alternative to A Levels, apprenticeships and other 16–19 courses, combining classroom-based learning with a 45-day industry placement.
After delivering T Level courses for the past four years, EKC Ashford College hosted the collaborative event alongside the Association of Colleges (AoC).
The session provided an opportunity for education providers considering offering T Levels, or those already delivering them, to learn from EKC Ashford College’s experience.
The event began with introductions from EKC Ashford College Principal Lucy Clark, AoC T Level Lead Stephanie Crane, and EKC Group CEO Lucy McLeod. This was followed by presentations from the Programme Directors for the Engineering T Level and Digital T Level, exploring the components of a T Level, progression from Level 2 qualifications, and curriculum content.
Guests were then invited to meet T Level students in the College’s state-ofthe-art engineering workshops within the Phase 2 extension, before gaining an insight into EKC Group’s Industry Liaison Officer roles, which play a key part in supporting students to secure industry placements as part of their course.
Dale Richardson from USP College attended the event to learn more about how EKC Ashford College delivers T Level courses.
He said: “We’ve been delivering T Levels for a couple of years now; we just wanted to make sure that we were delivering it in the most effective way and seeing how other colleges were dealing with the challenges of delivering a T Level.
“I found today pretty useful; it was nice to see some of the different aspects in terms of the approaches other colleges took and also gaining a deeper understanding of how the exams department and the careers department work together with the college here.”
Lucy Clark, Principal of EKC Ashford College, said the event was a valuable opportunity to share learning with other education providers.
She said: “We had a variety of people attend; we’ve had people who work in curriculum as teachers or curriculum leads, we had people who were in job roles concerned with work placements, employers that we’ve worked with, students, and there were a couple of people from the Department for Education and the AoC.
“I think it’s been really successful because it’s sharing things that people really want to know. We’re not trying to sell anything; we’re just talking through our honest experiences.
“T Levels are relatively new qualifications and people were quite distrustful of them when they first came out, which is sort of normal when there’s something new, but over the last few years, one of the things that we’ve come to realise is how good they are for the learners and one of the really important things about them is the work experience placement. That can really change a learner’s perspective, and it’s often the thing that when you ask them, they will say, I loved that most about my course.”
Stephanie Crane, T Level Lead at AoC, added: “We asked the provider [EKC Ashford College] if they could open their doors, have a full immersion experience with new T Level providers, but also providers who are along the way with their journey, and that’s exactly what’s happened today.
“We’ve had lots of discussion, we’ve been on a tour of the campus, we’ve been into the nitty-gritty of delivery and examination requirements. It’s been a really fantastic day.”
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