Survey: Parents think apprenticeships provide better job prospects than uni degrees

T Levels are new courses coming in September 2020, which will follow GCSEs and be equivalent to 3 A Levels. They will offer students a mixture of classroom learning and ‘on-the-job’ experience during an industry placement of around 45 days. They are 2-year courses that are being developed in collaboration with employers and businesses.

With only one year to go until the first T Levels are rolled out in England, the survey of parents of 11-18 year olds commissioned by CMI shows that 57% have still not heard of T Levels and only 11% feel they know a lot about them.

This lack of awareness is greater among those from lower socioeconomic groups, where 84% of parents had never heard of T Levels.

Once explained, many parents are optimistic about the potential of T Levels. 71% think T Levels will help prepare young people with the skills needed for the workforce, 58% think they will be better than existing vocational programmes and 53% think they will have the same status and value as A Levels.

Rob Wall, head of policy at CMI said: “Raising awareness of T Levels with parents is proving to be a real challenge. As parents are a major influencer in young people’s education and career choices, educating and informing parents will be key to making T Levels a success.

“At CMI, we know that high quality technical and vocational education increases employability and boosts social mobility and the Government’s recent announcement to invest additional funding in T Levels is to be welcomed. But students cannot enjoy these benefits if they are not aware of or not encouraged to consider non-academic pathways.

“The fact that over 4 in 5 parents from lower income households have still not heard of T Levels should be a huge wake up call for Ministers and policy makers alike.”

CMI www.managers.org.uk