News story: £38 million T Level Capital Fund launches

The first further education providers to teach T Levels are set to benefit from a £38 million funding boost to help build new classrooms, refurbish buildings and upgrade their equipment in readiness to deliver the new qualifications from September 2020.

The T Level Capital Fund was announced by the Chancellor in the 2018 Budget. It is designed to make sure young people taking the new technical courses have access to industry standard equipment and high quality facilities so they gain the skills and knowledge employers demand.

T Levels will be the technical equivalent to A Levels, combining classroom theory, practical learning and an industry placement. The first T Level courses in education, construction and digital will be taught by over 50 further education and post-16 providers from September 2020.

The T Level Capital Fund will be delivered in two parts. From today (Thursday 30 January), eligible further education providers are being invited to bid for funding to refurbish their existing buildings or to build new spaces. Funding for specialist equipment such as digital and audio visual kit, will be allocated to all providers in spring 2020.

Apprenticeships and Skills Minster, Anne Milton said:

T Levels are a once in a generation opportunity to transform technical education in this country. They will give young people the opportunity to gain the skills they need to get a great job, go on to do a higher level apprenticeship or further study.

It will be vital that they have access to the latest, high quality equipment and state-of the art facilities during their studies. The T Level Capital Fund will help those further education providers at the forefront of delivering these important reforms to be ready to teach T Levels from September 2020.

To support the further education sector to deliver the new T Level programmes, the government will provide an additional half a billion pounds every year once they are all fully rolled out.

The government is also investing £20 million to help prepare the sector for the introduction of T Levels. This includes the £5 million Taking Teaching Further programme, which aims to attract more industry experts to work in the sector, and the £8 million T Level Professional Development offer to help teachers and staff prepare for the roll-out of the new qualifications.

In December 2018, the government announced the next 7 T Levels to be taught from 2021 as: Health; Healthcare Science; Science; Onsite Construction; Building Services Engineering; Digital Support and Services; and Digital Business Services.