Clear pathways into good jobs
Job opportunities and salaries will vary according to where young people live, but a ‘good job’ is more than just money — it includes being able to use the skills and knowledge that they have gained, and being valued for the ideas that they bring. In 2016 the Independent Panel on Technical Education, led by David Sainsbury who established the Gatsby Foundation, recommended the development of high-quality technical education pathways into occupations at all skills levels.viii The options in these pathways needed to be designed with and for employers so that learners could be confident that what they learned — whether as an apprentice or on a classroom-based course —would be valued in the workplace. Since 2016 we have seen the introduction of T-levels and Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs) in England which, alongside advanced and higher apprenticeships, offer quality-assured routes from school, college or university into a good job.
By 2026 all currently planned T-levelsix will have started teaching, and we can expect thousands of 18-year-olds to be leaving schools and colleges across England with these technical qualifications. At the time of writing 86 Higher Education providers in the UK have confirmed that a T-level will be suitable for entry to at least one of their coursesx, which demonstrates both the breadth and depth of learning that T-levels are providing. We can therefore expect that a small proportion of the million UCAS applicants will hold these qualifications and have their sights set on graduate level jobs.
Over the next four years more Level 4 and 5 courses will be approved by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education as meeting the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed by employers for occupations such as software developer, nursing associate, audiovisual technician and financial adviser.xi Just like degrees, these HTQs will also give students essential skills in problem-solving, teamwork and communication, and many will include work-based learning. But unless there is sufficient investment and momentum in raising awareness of HTQs to the same level as degree courses among students, parents, teachers and careers advisers, many young people in 2030 and beyond will miss out on the career advantages they will offer.