Creativity and collaboration helped us secure local T Level industry placements

Finding high-quality industry placements for T Level learners can be difficult. For the media, broadcast and production T Level, providers across different regions face common challenges, but those located on the doorsteps of industry ‘hubs’ such as Manchester and London do have a headstart. For those of us based further away from obvious opportunities, we have to get creative. But the results can be fantastic for our learners.

Richard in Norfolk

We want learners to gain genuine exposure to their industry on their placement, building their skills and fueling their enthusiasm. We don’t want them to spend hours just running the photocopier and doing tasks that could be done anywhere. My learners at City College Norwich specialise in being events and venues technicians as part of their media, broadcast and production T Level, so local theatre venues are one option for placements. However, other less obvious local opportunities have also produced invaluable placements. While we have had to be flexible in our course delivery to accommodate the industry’s seasonal and project cycles, the outcome is well worth it.

One example is our local folk festival, Folk in the Field. Initially, our learners were asked to design some festival projects, which were judged by the festival’s organiser. Impressed by the work, he invited our students to join his festival on a two-week residential this summer, running their own stage. They will be involved in all parts of the process from putting up fencing and organising logistics to working with staff on the main stage.

Another opportunity arose after attending one of the Education Training Foundation’s (ETF’s) Industry Insights days for T Level delivery staff. Visiting the Royal Opera House, I connected with their staff who lead on education partnerships and we are now working together on a distance learning project pilot. This offers learners the balance of visits to the opera house with the ability to complete many placement hours remotely within college. This flexibility particularly supports us in ensuring each young person has a placement that suits their individual needs.

Chloe in Berkshire

At Kennet School in Berkshire, we’ve taken a proactive and collaborative approach to helping students access high-quality placements. Like Richard, setting up placements for our students has meant focusing on removing barriers, especially ensuring placements are local enough to be affordable. As a school, we put a great deal of energy into building strong relationships with employers. We spend time preparing organisations for placements and setting clear expectations, which means that students and employers consistently have a positive experience.

Our students specialise in content creation and production for their T Level and we’ve benefited from the flexibility of working with an additional supply-chain employer to support them in completing placement hours. We’ve developed a process where our students begin with an ‘umbrella’ placement that introduces them all to production, including access to a real set, which they’ve been genuinely thrilled by. They then go on to pursue their own placements across supply-chain areas, such as lighting, sound engineering or film dubbing. The confidence they develop after these experiences is remarkable.

Although much of the work in this industry is project-based and seasonal, this has still opened up some fantastic opportunities. One example is a local film festival for young people, Evolve. Our students will be attending in June and helping with recording and producing promotional material for social media and the website – an experience that gives them real industry credits and hands-on production work.

Crossing regions

Industry placements are a challenge for most providers, so cross-regional collaboration and learning from others is great for sparking ideas. We were introduced to each other following ETF’s T Level leadership mentoring programme, which supported us with reflecting on challenges and trying new things, including building our social media presence to support with forming employer partnerships.

Solidarity with other practitioners and shared learning has boosted our confidence, and that has fueled our ability to think outside the box when it comes to placements and our wider practice. It is ultimately our learners who then reap the benefits with placement opportunities that leave them excited about their course, and much better prepared to join the workforce.