Leeds Achieves UK Education First With City-wide Approach To T Level Tuition

The Leeds Health and Care Academy, Leeds City College and Notre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College have worked in partnership to create a collaborative approach to the implementation of the new Health T Level qualification.

Shaped by local health and social care employers, the course will be taught in tandem across both colleges providing students with a unique opportunity to learn as part of a collaborative health and care team. Leeds is the only city in the UK to adopt this joined-up approach to T Levels, and partners within the Leeds health and care sector are excited about the benefits it will bring to both students and employers. The approach ensures that the Health T Level will be firmly integrated into citywide educational pathways to health and care careers.

Next week, delivery of the Health T Level qualification will begin across the city of Leeds. T Levels are a brand new, work-focused Level 3 technical post-GCSE qualification that is equivalent to 3 A Levels. This two-year course combines classroom theory and practical learning with a 315-hour industry placement to provide real-life experience of the workplace. T Levels have been developed in collaboration with employers and businesses so that the course content meets industry needs and prepares students for work, further training or study. Health T Level students will spend 80% of their studies in the classroom, and 20% on an industry placement at a Leeds-based health and care organisation.

Placement organisations include Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust, Leeds City Council, (Andrew Dodman, Chief HR Officer at Leeds City Council, is the Senior Responsible Officer for the Health T Level in Leeds, offering strategic direction and oversight to the programme), Leeds Primary Care and Third and Independent sector organisations.

The Leeds Health and Care Academy has worked with these key health and care partners to source and facilitate high quality, industry-leading placements in the community. The students enrolled on this course will be contributing to Leeds’s bold ambition to be the best city for health and wellbeing, ensuring that the city is attracting young talent, and building the health and care workforce of the future.

Via the T Level Resource Improvement Projects (TRIPs), funded by the Educational Training Foundation, Leeds has developed a ground-breaking, citywide approach to the implementation of the Health T Level. By ensuring that employers from across the Leeds health and care sector have been involved from the outset, Leeds has made the delivery of T Levels a fully inclusive and collaborative project, as the qualification is implemented in partnership across both participating colleges - Leeds City College and Notre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College. Both colleges will be timetabling T Levels in unison, so that the two groups of students can learn together, and industry representatives can work jointly with students at both colleges at the same time. This is entirely unique to Leeds; no other city is taking this collaborative approach.

The Leeds Health and Care Academy and Leeds One Workforce were established to create opportunities for all 57,000 health and social care staff across the city’s health and care sector, allowing them to learn and work collaboratively. This collective method of T Level tuition is a great example of this approach, and ensures that the important values of collaboration and togetherness are exemplified as soon as these future members of the city’s health and care workforce take the first steps towards their careers.

Speaking about the integrated approach to Health T Level delivery, Kate O’Connell, Director of Leeds Strategic Workforce & Health and Care Academy, says: “T Levels are such an exciting alternative for young people looking to start their careers in health and social care and I’m delighted that we have been able to work together as a city to create these opportunities. There are so many different jobs and types of workplaces in health and care, and through this joined-up approach we will be able to help young people explore their own strengths and passions and ultimately, help them shape their own future career.”

Suzanne Gallagher, Principal at Leeds City College (Quarry Hill Campus) says: “We are really pleased to be working in direct collaboration with the Leeds health and care sector and Notre Dame College to bring T Level tuition to life. This new, innovative qualification builds the skills and knowledge needed for a successful career in health and social care both in and out of the classroom, ensuring that students are equipped with hands-on experience, as well as the theoretical knowledge required, by the time they’ve completed the T Level course. We’re really excited to bring this qualification to Leeds.”

Justine Barlow, Principal at Notre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College says: “We are delighted to provide our students with the opportunity to gain a Health T Level qualification in partnership with the Leeds Health and Care Academy. T Levels provide an excellent balance of contextual and theoretical learning and we are excited to see what a positive impact our young people will have on the Leeds community and beyond.”