The panel will be responsible for developing the outline content of T-levels and currently comes under the remit of the Department for Education. It is chaired by Edward Sallis, an associate of the Education and Training Foundation and chair of the English and Maths Advisory Board of Mid-Kent College.
T-levels refer to college-based technical education programmes – the vocational equivalent of A-levels. They are not the on-the-job training provided by apprenticeships.
T-levels are grouped into 15 different groups or ‘routes’. Education and childcare is one of the first routes to go live, expected to be in 2020. The route groups different occupations together which are thought to require similar training and qualifications.
Membership of the Education and Childcare panel is as follows:
Two education and childcare panels
Another childcare and education panel, with a different but related function, sits under the Institute for Apprenticeships and is chaired by primary and secondary academy CEO Sir Nick Weller.
The IfA childcare and education panel is responsible for feeding into, and recommending approval of new apprenticeship ‘standards’ which are proposed by employer groups (known as trailblazers.)
Overlap
In time the Institute for Apprenticeships will take on the provision of all technical education in addition to its role overseeing apprenticeships. An IfA spokesman said this ‘will be a gradual process over the coming years. The early stage setup of T-levels is being done by the Department for Education'.
The T-level panel will use the approved apprenticeship standards as a basis for outline content of T-level programmes. Each T-level will also include a qualification based on this outline content.
Maps of how this could look are currently being consulted upon, and include the existing Early Years Educator qualification.
- See the T level consultation here