T Levels are built on the idea that technical education works best when learning is connected to industry. But for colleges delivering T Levels that presents a practical challenge.
They need employer involvement to bring technical education to life. Employers need a pipeline of future talent. Yet providing high-quality industry experiences for growing numbers of students is not straightforward.
For construction, where skills shortages remain a long-term challenge, expanding access without reducing quality is becoming one of the sector's biggest opportunities. To help achieve this, Willmott Dixon has launched ‘Plan, Design & Build Your Future’, a national employer-led pilot designed to help more students engage directly with industry.
Developed by our internal specialist team in collaboration colleges, the programme invites students to design a proposal based on a Willmott Dixon project. Tutors guide students and regional Willmott Dixon experts provide clarification and support.
A shared framework, supported regionally
One of the challenges for colleges is that employer engagement often depends on the availability of individual projects and individual teams. Site capacity is another constraint. Students need supervision on site, and our teams can usually only accommodate one or two at a time.
Our pilot takes a different approach Rather than asking every project or college to develop activity independently, it provides a shared national framework supported by regional relationships and industry expertise, enabling more students to participate without relying solely on site teams.
Students access the same brief and learning resources wherever they are based, while still benefiting from local employer engagement and feedback.
Recent reform of the T Level qualification has recognised the need for this greater flexibility too. Updated placement guidance gives providers greater scope to organise experiences through collaboration between employers, small-team projects and other delivery approaches. We hope the scalability our programme brings should help widen access while preserving meaningful industry engagement.
Learning from delivery
The future of technical education will depend on whether employers can participate in ways that are practical, consistent and meaningful. With the evolution of new qualifications and pathways emerging, technical education is expanding and industry needs to grow with it.
Launched at the beginning of October, our ‘Plan, Design & Build Your Future’ pilot provides an opportunity to test one approach, learn from students and tutors, and understand what effective employer involvement looks like when delivered nationally.
One thing we have learned from earlier programmes is that students respond well when they are trusted with realistic challenges. Therefore, we make a point of asking them to balance competing priorities, defend decisions and work with incomplete information - developing skills that cannot be taught from classroom teaching alone.
Currently the pilot involves over 30 colleges and more than 400 students across England. In early November, groups of students will present their proposals at a Willmott Dixon office.
Feedback from students, tutors and our teams will help us refine the programme and come back with more in 2027.
If you are a college, student or industry partner interested in being involved in the next phase, please contact me at charlotte.haddow@willmottdixon.co.uk