The Leeds Health and Care Academy is proud to be working in partnership with Notre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College and Leeds City College to offer Health T-Level students industry placements across the city’s health and care sector.
The facts about T Levels
- T Levels were launched in September 2020 and are a high-quality, work-focused alternative to A-levels for young people post-GCSE.
- T Levels sit alongside A levels and apprenticeships.
- A T Level course is a Level 3 technical qualification and is equivalent to 3 A levels.
- By completing a T Level, students gain UCAS points.
- These two-year courses combine classroom theory, practical learning, and a 315-hour industry placement to make sure students have real experience of the workplace.
- Students will spend 80% of their studies in the classroom and 20% on an industry placement provided by the Leeds Health and Care system.
- T Levels have been developed in collaboration with employers and businesses so that the content meets industry needs and prepares students for work, further training or study.
- Learners can then progress into skilled employment, higher level technical training, or study in the health and science sector.
How is Leeds doing T Levels differently?
Via the T Level Resource Improvement Projects (TRIPs), funded by the Educational Training Foundation, we have developed a citywide approach to the implementation of the Health T level in Leeds. By ensuring that employers from across the Leeds Health and Care sector are involved from the beginning, we have made the delivery of T Levels a truly inclusive and collaborative project, as the qualification is implemented in partnership across the city. Both participating colleges (Leeds City College and Notre Dame Sixth Form College) have timetabled T Levels at exactly the same time, so both colleges can be taught together and industry representatives can interact with students at both colleges in a single session. This is entirely unique to Leeds, no other city is taking this collaborative approach.
Placement opportunities
The Leeds Health and Care Academy is working with Leeds City College and Notre Dame Sixth Form College to facilitate placements within Leeds’s health and care sector for T Level students. Working with a diverse range of placement providers across a variety of health and social care settings allows us to offer high quality, industry-leading placements in local communities. The students enrolled on this course will be contributing to our bold ambition for Leeds to be the best city for health and wellbeing.
The placements themselves could involve working in an acute hospital; a community healthcare setting; social care settings; a care home; a voluntary organisation; or an independent provider of care services. The industry placement will give students significant exposure and experience in what it’s like to work in health or care in Leeds. It equates to approximately 45 days of real experience in a live workplace.
Students gain direct clinical experience early on with wider multi-disciplinary teams, shadowing Nurses, Clinical Support Workers, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists and other professions. Students also have a healthcare professional as their point of contact for support throughout the placement.
In the videos below, you’ll hear from current and previous Chief Executives of four of our main placement providers – Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, the Leeds and York Partnership Foundation Trust, Leeds Community Healthcare Trust, and Leeds City Council. The videos offer an introduction to each organisation, and explain what students can expect during their time on placement.
Information for employers
There are a number of resources available for employers who have offered industry placements through their organisations. If you are interested in finding out more about hosting placements within your organisation, you can do so by taking a look through the ‘T Levels for Employers’ document.
If you’re an employer, and you’d like to ask us any specific questions about current or future placements, please send us an email via lhca@nhs.net.
More detailed, industry-specific information for current employers can be found below:
If you have any questions or you’d like to find out more about the Health T Level, please contact us at lhca@nhs.net.
