Burnham put in his placement over work experience

Just 92 of the 1,000 extra T Level work placements Andy Burnham claimed to have delivered can be confirmed, an FE Week investigation has revealed.

In a speech at the People’s History Museum in Manchester on 29 June, weeks before he became PM, Burnham said his city region had “rang round our businesses” and, “with the help of hundreds of companies, delivered our goal of a thousand extra work placements”.

“That’s a thousand extra young lives changed every year and it shows what a place can do when it works as one,” he added.

But Freedom of Information (FOI) responses show the Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s (GMCA) T Level employer pledge campaign, launched while he was mayor, had confirmed only 92 placements from 1,204 employer pledges by March. The fate of around 790 is unknown.

FE Week’s request also prompted GMCA to correct its own annual report, which said 1,163 T Level placements had been “secured” when the figure only referred to pledges from employers.

The findings come in a difficult week for the prime minister. At the weekend he said it was “clear” Russia had interfered in the 2016 Brexit referendum, but provided no further details. Two weeks ago, he was criticised for praising Manchester City’s owners after the club was found to have breached Premier League financial rules by an independent commission. The club has appealed and denies wrongdoing.

At prime minister’s questions (PMQs) on Wednesday, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch asked Burnham whether he ever got tired of “putting his foot in his mouth”.

And earlier today, Burnham apologised and corrected the parliamentary record for “misspeaking” at PMQs on Wednesday by stating the man charged with the murder of Ann Widdecombe “was responsible” for her death. A plea has not yet been entered and the trial has not taken place.

‘Pledges are not placements’

GMCA launched its T Level employer pledge campaign in April 2025. Delivered by The Growth Company, it aimed to secure more than 1,000 pledges.

The 1,204 pledges total was correct as of 14 August 2026, but GMCA’s figures on what became of them run only to March.

A placement counts as confirmed once a learner has been matched with an agreed start date, or it is underway or completed. Another 322 are “in progress” but not confirmed.

GMCA said it did not know the status of the remaining pledges because the providers that received them had not yet reported back.

Just 44 employers had confirmed placements, compared with 352 that GMCA said in January had pledged.

The figures cover only placements matched through the pledge campaign. They do not show the region’s total as T Level providers and learners also arrange placements directly with employers.

GMCA’s own announcements described the figures as pledges. In January, it said employers had pledged “over 1,000 additional work placements”.

But Burnham repeated his misleading claim after entering Downing Street. In an episode of the podcast Jimmy’s Jobs of the Future, recorded at Number 10 on 30 July, he said: “Last year we got a thousand extra placements just by persuasion.”

Saqib Bhatti, the shadow education minister, said the gap between Burnham’s claims and the 92 confirmed placements showed a “staggering gap between the political spin and the facts”.

“Helping young people gain valuable work experience by connecting them with employers is absolutely the right thing to do, but pledges are not placements and young people deserve more than impressive-sounding headlines,” he said.

LJ Rawlings, chief executive of Youth Employment UK, said: “I think this is a good example of where ambition and action, particularly around employer engagement, show they are not the same thing.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We’re encouraged by the level of ambition shown by Greater Manchester and we’ll work with them to ensure these placement pledges develop into strong, hands-on experience for students.”

Correcting the record

GMCA also counted pledges as placements in its Year 2: Growing Impact report on the Greater Manchester Baccalaureate (MBacc), published in July.

A version archived on 2 August said 1,163 T Level placements had been “secured” with 439 employers.

After FE Week challenged the figures in an FOI internal review request in September, the report was changed to read “1,163 T Level placements pledges secured with 439 employers”.

In its review decision on 9 October, GMCA admitted the report contained an error in which the word “pledges” was omitted.

“The figure of 1,163 relates to pledges secured, rather than confirmed student placements,” it said. It added that “secured” was not a measure the campaign used.

A GMCA spokesperson said: “Our drive to secure additional T Level placement pledges from employers across Greater Manchester is part of the Greater Manchester Baccalaureate, our pioneering approach to technical education.

“Our aim is that by 2035, every young person who needs one will be able to access a high-quality, 45-day work placement, so they can gain skills and knowledge for future jobs. To date, we have worked with the Growth Company to secure over 1,000 T Level placement pledges from employers across all 10 boroughs of our city region, including IBM, Autotrader and NHS Greater Manchester.”

Employers ‘feeling squeeze’

GMCA staff work with T Level coordinators at colleges across the region to match pledges with learners.

Richard Caulfield, senior policy manager at GMColleges, which represents Greater Manchester’s FE colleges, said the pledges were a “welcome addition”.

“We continue to work with the combined authority in the new academic year, further refining the processes so that we can target support on areas, both geographical and sectoral, where placements are harder to find,” he said.

But Rawlings said the reality of employers taking on T Level learners was “much harder” than the ambition suggested.

“Employers are feeling the economic squeeze, rising costs and administrative burden, and they have yet to be convinced this is a growth agenda item as well as a social one,” she said.

Claire Green, post-16 and skills specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “Industry placements are a vital part of T Levels, but securing sufficient high-quality opportunities for all students can be difficult. It’s important to be transparent about these challenges in order to find solutions.”

Number 10 declined to comment.