Three-quarters of business haven’t heard of T-levels ahead of launch, says BCC

Policy is part of the government’s plan to improve skills of workers but poor communication and strained relations with business are putting scheme’s success at risk

Strained relations between government and business risk efforts to improve workers’ skills (Getty)

“A revolution in technical education,” is how the government has described the introduction of its new T-levels. They’re designed to be the equivalent of three A-levels for youngsters keen to embark on a technical rather than an academic path, and they have, in theory, been developed alongside employers.

Why then is the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), members of which regularly complain about the difficulty they have when it comes to getting their hands on appropriately skilled employees, getting twitchy about them? Well, for a start, the results of a survey of 1,100 businesses reveal three-quarters either hadn’t heard of them, or recognised them by name only.

The promised “revolution” is going to fizzle out faster than a fuse on a rainy day if employers, when confronted with a candidate brandishing a top-class T-level, say great, but what on earth does that mean? What are these T-level things anyway?

Given how many haven’t heard of the new qualification, it’s no wonder 41 per cent of respondents told the BCC their businesses currently have no plans to offer placements. That’s a problem, because a 45-day placement with an employer is a key part of the programme. “The results reveal a clear communication void with business ahead of their roll-out,” the organisation says. The BCC believes the government needs to get its skates on for the new qualifications to succeed with their laudable aims. It has a point.

Poor communication with business has bedevilled another flagship policy designed to help improve Britain’s lamentable record when it comes to training and the development of its workforce’s skills: the apprenticeship levy. The idea of it is sound. Employers with payrolls of more than £3m pay a 0.5 per cent charge, which is held in a digital fund that can be used to offset the cost of apprenticeship training. It’s also understandable that restrictions were placed on how it could be used to prevent them from gaming the system.

Business complaints further need to be considered against a backdrop of their own lack of investment in training without which the levy wouldn’t have been necessary. But when you have an insurer saying to the BCC that the measure has “effectively stolen” the industry’s investment into the Chartered Insurance Institute training scheme, resulting in fewer young people entering what is one of the UK’s biggest industries, it’s clear some of the complaints have merit and deserve a hearing.

Other businesses have regularly raised issues of complex and unwieldy administration and a lack of suitable courses to spend their levy funds on. The BCC says there has been movement on some of the issues it has raised with respect to the scheme, but that it has been too slow. Part of that is inevitably down to Brexit and the general paralysis it has induced in government.

The latter has contributed greatly to the current strained relations with the business community, which is having to deal with the impact of a policy with far-reaching implications. How it will be implemented remains completely up in the air.

Combined with a high-handed approach, it is putting at risk the success of policies that might otherwise be seen as rare bright spots. A change of approach is urgently required but given the Conservative Party’s behaviour, and the fact that it may soon be led by a man who had no apparent problem with saying “f*** business”, that doesn’t look likely to happen anytime soon.