Article

Embedding T Levels into a grow your own workforce strategy

Insights and recommendations on how to integrate T Level placements into workforce strategies.

25 February 2026

Three nurses on a laptop

Over two sessions, held in July 2025 and January 2026, members of the ICS Industry Placement Network were invited to explore insights and share recommendations in two roundtable sessions. These looked at current good practice in the area, future developments and barriers to implementation, and actionable strategies to ensure workforce development initiatives are both effective and sustainable. 

T Levels, with their blend of classroom learning and on-the-job experience, offer a unique opportunity to cultivate a skilled and adaptable workforce from within our own communities. However, we know that organisations offering T Level industry placements are not all yet integrating them strongly into workforce strategies and realising the potential of industry placements as an important element of growing your own workforce.  

The first session identified four main themes, with these themes revisited in the second session to check how their implementation had been progressed.

1

Collaboration and career guidance

This theme explores the importance of talent pipelines, engaging with further education (FE) providers and highlighting the range of roles available to students whilst on and after their industry placements.  

Organisations are at varying stages of embedding T Levels into their workforce strategies. Reflections from the roundtable ranged from those taking initial steps — drawing on lessons from established career pathways — to those that have formally integrated T Levels into their strategies and are actively collaborating with other stakeholders.

    • Build on existing pathways: learning from established routes like the nursing associate apprenticeship and registered nurse degree apprenticeships can inform the talent pipeline and how students are supported and retained.  
    • Create new models: As the number of industry placements grows, employers should consider how to shape their industry placement offer to facilitate upscaling. This could include the development of a hub and spoke model, allowing students to spend time in a diverse range of areas or the use of the small team project to increase capacity.
    • Create clear post-placement opportunities: ring-fencing roles (e.g. guaranteed interviews for healthcare support worker positions) provides viable alternatives to higher education.  However, if a student isn’t aware of development opportunities they may not fully understand the opportunity in comparison to continued education. Modelling the full pipeline is crucial, whilst also reassuring the student they can develop their career at a pace that suits them. This guidance needs to be rooted in reality, ensuring students are aware of how some opportunities may be limited.
    • Communicate clearly and consistently: clarity of messaging shared with students is important. For example, how long can they expect to spend as a healthcare support worker before progressing, what is the process for moving into the allied health professions, what if a clinically facing role isn’t right for them. The timeline of opportunities is also important; students may not understand that apprenticeship cohorts start at specific times of the year so there will be a pause in progression. Employers shouldn’t assume any prior knowledge from students.
    • Engage FE providers early: collaborating with FE providers will increase their understanding of the career pathways available and to facilitate opportunities for health and care organisations to offer career awareness sessions with students. Ideally these should start prior to industry placement to equip students with an understanding of future opportunities.
    • Encourage cross-sector teaching: health and care professionals can contribute to FE teaching, bringing real-world insight. FE tutors could also spend time in clinical settings to deepen their understanding. There may also be opportunities for curriculum co-design.
    • Expose students to a range of roles: As this is the first step to growing the future workforce, students are not bound to one area. Students, as well as FE providers, should be offered opportunities to understand a wide range of careers.  
2

Organic growth

Attendees shared reflections on how T Level students are organically integrated into the grow your own workforce strategies. These insights highlight the benefits of supporting industry placements, even before any formal interventions are in place.

Industry placements can organically support growing your own workforce, through the sharing of positive experiences and through students joining the bank.  

    • The industry placement: industry placements naturally support workforce strategies by giving students the chance to explore what works for them, leading to more informed and stable next steps.
    • Word of mouth: students share their experience of a good industry placement experience with others, raising awareness of the T Level qualification in local communities and promoting health and care organisations as great places to work.
    • The staff bank: joining the staff bank, either during or after placement, is already a form of development. It provides students with financial support, skill-building and interaction with different careers, while helping organisations fill workforce gaps.
    • Share learning with others: Given that several organisations have merged or run primary care or community services in the locality, there is an opportunity to take the learning from the industry placement to other services or areas.
    • Focus on student growth: As an industry placement student’s understanding grows, their future career ambitions may change accordingly. Employers could support this through iterative career meetings as the industry placement progresses. An opportunity to suggest bank work or reinforcing the importance of internal progression.
3

Culture and language

Participants discussed the role that organisational culture and internal language can play in shaping perceptions of T Level industry placements. A supportive culture will encourage students to embrace the opportunities offered. The way placements are framed, both internally to staff and externally to stakeholders, can significantly influence their uptake and success.  

The language used within organisations to embed T Level industry placements is equally important and encourages senior leaders to view industry placements as a valuable opportunity to recruit, retain and grow staff.  

    • Use precise terminology: being precise with the wording that is used around T Level industry placements is essential. The industry placement is not the same as work experience, it is an opportunity for students to fully embed into a team in the organisation.
    • Focus on values: From the point of interview until the end of the industry placement, it is important to embed organisational values into multiple elements of the placement. Interviews should be values-based, and work taster activities could focus on organisational values.
    • Supporting documentation is key: guidance which quickly and easily conveys what a T Level is, what the industry placement is and how this can support workforce development is useful for engaging colleagues across organisations. This is particularly helpful if paired with examples of student journeys. Whilst dcumentation for colleagues is helpful, written materials for students can also ensure they feel supported.
    • Connect with wider culture work: developing a positive culture towards students on industry placement cannot be done in isolation. This work should connect with wider culture pieces, for example supporting a positive culture for undergraduate students.
    • Look at wider health and care shifts: The industry placement is a great opportunity to embed the future direction of travel for health and care into a student’s training. This could, for example, include supporting students to develop an understanding of health inequalities and the move towards prevention.
    • Celebrating mentors: ensure those who have mentored the students are celebrated. This could include developing case studies to inspire others to mentor students and encouraging students to share positive mentoring feedback.
    • Diversify mentorship: mentors don’t always need to be healthcare support workers, with some colleagues exploring how undergraduate students could themselves be mentors for younger students. This can upskill undergraduate students by developing education and leadership skills, while offering relatable guidance.
    • Make the talent pipeline explicit: ensure workforce strategies clearly state that T Level placements are part of long-term recruitment and development plans.
4

External stakeholder engagement

Industry placements as a workforce development strategy do not sit in isolation in an organisation but have links to anchor work, school engagement, the wider system and national strategies.

Using industry placements are part of the solution to growing your own workforce benefits from engagement with others from outside the organisation, as well as how this integrates into other organisational ambitions.

    • The role of the anchor organisation: industry placements are one way of supporting local economic development as a local anchor. Collaborate with FE providers to identify and support local workforce needs.  
    • Engage with the system: organisations do not sit in isolation and should be discussing this work with colleagues working at a system level. There are opportunities to look at how T Level industry placements form a system-wide talent pipeline. 
    • Start early: organisations can engage with schools to take an active role in promoting talent pipelines, including industry placements, to students prior to choosing their post-16 pathway.  
    • Link to wider policies: attendees discussed how industry placements feed into wider policy pieces including the NHS 10 Year Plan, Get Britain Working, local growth plans and policy ambitions to reduce those not in employment, education or training (NEET). 

Embedding learning in organisations

Attendees were asked to reflect on what they will be taking back to their organisations after this session, with responses including the following: 

  • Exploring ringfencing opportunities for students on completing their industry placement.
  • Clear guidance for T Level students on how to progress from a healthcare support worker role to an apprenticeship (such as a nursing apprenticeship). Potential expansion of this to include all elements of the organisation’s apprenticeship offer.
  • Providing mentoring training to healthcare support workers and others involved in supporting students on industry placement.
  • Creation of a robust interview process for prospective industry placement students, which may include an ‘interview the interviewer’ component and inviting current students to interview new students.
  • Explicit mention of T Level industry placements in organisational workforce plans.  
  • Reflecting on the importance of language when promoting and upscaling industry placements.  

They were also supportive of insights being shared with other employers to inform and support their own workforce strategies.   

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