Local MP Julian Knight has welcomed the news that the Government has named the first 52 colleges and education providers to offer the new ‘T Level’ – and that a local college may be amongst the first of the new ‘Institutes of Technology’.
Solihull College has made it through the first round of a £170 million national two-stage, competition to establish the new IoTs, which be a brand new form of institute established via cooperation between further and higher education providers and employers.
The T Level, meanwhile, is designed to streamline the current, bewildering array of over 13,000 technical qualifications into a much smaller number of quality-assured courses with clear pathways towards industry and employment.
Julian has been a long-standing supporter of the drive to stop technical education being perceived as the poor relation of academic study, and has argued for several years that ministers should offer technically-minded young people a real and useful alternative to the A Level.
Commenting on the news, Julian Knight said:
“I’m delighted that Solihull is once again taking the lead when it comes to this transformational change in our education system.
“T Levels and Institutes of Technology represent not only a vital step towards the skilled workforce Britain will need to thrive in the 21st Century, but a big win for social justice too. I’m proud that this Government recognises that our schools need to provide high-quality options to every sort of learner, not just the academically-minded.
“I bid Solihull College the very best of luck in the final stage of the competition. It would be very fitting for our town, with its industrial and exporting heritage, to be on the front line of this revolution in technical education.”