Students should finish their T levels before taking up a job, Education Secretary urges

The Cabinet Minister helped introduce the first T levels when she was a junior education minister in 2020 as part of the Government’s focus on phasing out BTECs qualifications popular in Yorkshire.

It comes after data showed that nearly half of students enrolled in health and science T-levels have dropped out of their course.

Ms Keegan said that her department had identified that many of those students who had dropped out had either gone on to another course or they entered the workplace after their work placement.

“We’re trying to make sure that doesn’t happen,” she said, adding that it was “really important that people continue the programme because it is fantastic”.

When asked whether she envisioned the Government’s embracing of technical education to provide the same “jobs for life” as previous generations who worked in a trade or industry, the Education Secretary said that things had changed.

“I’m not sure many people want the same job for life, but people want to get the skills that are really valued in the workplace and when they’re in the workplace, be able to get on and be retrained and upskilled,” she told The Yorkshire Post during a visit to a nursery in Harrogate alongside Rishi Sunak.

It came as part of the Government’s push to get parents to sign up to its offer of 30 free hours of childcare ahead of the deadline of the end of the month.

Ms Keegan said: “I wouldn’t want any family to miss out because they can’t find childcare that meets their needs or simply didn’t know how much they were entitled to.”

The Department for Education said that this could save working parents an average of £6,500 per year.

From April next year, working parents of two-year-olds will be able to access 15 hours of free childcare. This will be extended to working parents of all children older than nine months from September next year.

Children’s minister Claire Coutinho has written to housing associations, social landlords and developers urging them to review restrictive clauses in tenant contracts which could prevent them from working in their own homes.

The restrictions are seen as a factor that can discourage people from considering a career in childminding.

She said: “We have outstanding, high-quality childminders, offering flexible and accessible childcare in a home-like environment.

“Too often prospective childminders are having the door slammed in their faces because they face a blanket ban on working from home.”

According to the Department for Education (DfE), the number of childminders operating in England has more than halved over the past 10 years, with ministers looking to reverse the trend ahead next year’s childcare offer expansion.

The Conservative Government said it has tabled amendments to the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill that will allow professionals to work in groups of up to four childminders in total in a bid to tackle loneliness in the sector.