Just over half of T Level students satisfied with course, DfE survey reveals

Most common reasons for apprentice dropouts and levels of OTJ compliance also revealed

Most common reasons for apprentice dropouts and levels of OTJ compliance also revealed

30 Sep 2024, 17:08

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Student satisfaction on T Levels has taken a dip and levels of compliance with off-the-job training among apprentices has risen but remains low.

The findings were revealed in a series of Department for Education reports published on Friday afternoon.

Here’s what we learned from the DfE’s technical education learner survey and its survey of apprentices, both conducted in 2023.

Low T Level satisfaction

The technical education report, written by NatCen Social Research and NFER, looks at how T Levels were experienced by students who started in 2021, compared to A-levels and other level 3 technical courses.

Only 57 per cent of T Level students reported feeling satisfied, 14 percentage points lower than the first wave of students who started in 2020 and completed surveys last year.

Elsewhere, 76 per cent of level 3 technical students and 72 per cent of A level students, who were also surveyed for comparison, said they were satisfied with their course.

However, T Level satisfaction “varied significantly” between course, with about eight in ten education and early years students feeling satisfied, while only four in ten health and science learners felt the same.

Digital learners’ satisfaction dropped 20 percentage points to 51 per cent in a year.

Students were most satisfied with teachers’ knowledge, the skills covered and the standard of teaching.

They were least happy with the programme’s management, the way students are assessed, preparation for future study and level of employer contact.

Lack of study materials

Learners in health and science, a newly introduced route for 2021, reported a lack of study materials as a key barrier to their learning.

“This may reflect difficulties with core assessments on this route, which Ofqual found were not fit for purpose, leading to regrading of first year T Level results for these learners,” the report said.

Next steps

T Level students’ most common next steps were a degree or apprenticeship, while only 17 per cent said they wanted to move straight into paid work.

Despite the career-focused design of the course, 69 per cent of T Level learners felt the course had allowed them to progress to what they wanted to do, compared to 82 per cent of A-level students and 74 per cent of level 3 technical learners. 

T Level transition

Satisfaction levels of learners on the T Level Transition Programme, a one-year post-GCSE course to prepare for T Levels, were at 71 per cent, similar to the previous year.

However, learners’ enthusiasm for progressing on to a T Level fell during the year, with 66 per cent planning to study “another course” or look for an apprenticeship.

Students reported gaining the skills and knowledge they needed, but only about half felt prepared for T Levels, despite this being a “key aim” of the course.

At the start of the transition programme, 42 per cent of learners intended to progress onto a T Level, however, by the end of the course, this had reduced to 33 per cent, the report revealed. The most common reason for not continuing onto a T Level was preferring to study another course.

Apprentice satisfaction high

The survey of apprentices, reported by IFF Research, ran 4,919 interviews with current or completed apprentices, alongside 500 interviews with non-completers, between July and September 2023.

Satisfaction with apprenticeships is increasing slightly year on year, hitting 87 per cent for learners in 2023.

Most apprentices were still in work after completing, and 68 per cent were still employed by the same organisation.

The report found that 97 per cent of completers reported a positive impact on their job or career, such as a promotion or pay rise.

But ‘badly run’ training most common reason for drop-outs

Researchers spoke to 506 non-completers to find out the most common reason for not staying the course of their programme, amid the government’s efforts to tackle the fact that around half of apprentices drop out every year.

Two-thirds (65 per cent) of non-completers left their apprenticeship within the first 12 months. On average, those who dopped out did nine months of their apprenticeship before leaving.

Overall, the most common factors contributing to non-completers leaving were the apprenticeship being “badly run or poorly organised” (49 per cent, up from 41 per cent in 2021), training not being as good as they had hoped (46 per cent) and not enough time for learning or training (43 per cent), according to the report.

A third (36 per cent) of non-completers said that personal or domestic factors made it difficult to complete the apprenticeship, with the most common issues in this area including were caring responsibilities (11 per cent), mental health issues (8 per cent), personal, family or relationship issues (7 per cent) and physical health issues (not related to COVID-19) (7 per cent).

Researchers said that once “contributing reasons” for leaving were established, non-completers were asked to name their single main reason for leaving their apprenticeship. The most common was receiving a better job offer (16 per cent), followed by not getting on with the apprenticeship employer (11 per cent) and not having enough time for learning or training (10 per cent).

Delays to EPAs

New to the learner survey for 2023, apprentices that had completed apprenticeship standards were asked whether they encountered any delays to end-point assessments (EPAs).

Two-thirds (64 per cent) said their EPAs took place on time, with a third (34 per cent) reporting a delay. Half of those reporting a delay (17 per cent overall) said the delay lasted for three months or longer.

Construction (50 per cent) and engineering (46 per cent) apprentices were most likely to have faced delays, with two-fifths (39 per cent) of construction apprentices reporting a delay that lasted for three months or longer.

Off-the-job compliance

Apprentices reported that about one fifth of their time was spent on off the job training (21 per cent up from 19 per cent in 2021).

Three fifths (60 per cent) reported that their hours were compliant with apprenticeship requirements, an increased on the 46 per cent reported in 2021.

Sectors such as education, health and retail continue to report the lowest compliance levels, while ICT and construction continue to report the highest.

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