Industry Placement Employers

Employer Benefits

As an employer, you can play a key role in developing students’ technical and employability skills whilst building their confidence.

Why placements work:

• You add extra resources to your day-to-day business operations
• You will enable existing staff to develop management skills whilst supervising a student
• You inject fresh ideas and practice from students who are currently training in the industry
• You inspire and support the next generation of workers in your industry
• You access a potential future workforce
• You address current and future skill shortages in your industry
• You strengthen your recruitment pipeline and increase people-diversity

The placement process:

• What’s the difference between an industry placement and work experience, and who goes on what?

  • Industry Placements – All students undertaking a full-time T Level [1] qualification are required to participate in a mandatory Industry Placement relating to their T Level course Students normally attend 1 day per week during term time but can also complete placement hours during half term reading breaks, weekends and holiday periods. For the majority of T Level placements, students are required to complete a minimum of 315 hours [2] with an employer which can be spread over the two academic years of study, and are equivalent to 45 days @ 7 hours per day. T Level placement students are set learning objectives to achieve while on placement and agreement is made with you as the employer/ placement host as to the scope of tasks and activities that they can be involved with
  • Work Experience – This is for all full-time students not undertaking a T Level course. The College expects work experience students to complete a minimum of 30 hours in industry, but this can be more hours dependent on your capacity and the student’s

  [1] A T Level qualification is a Level 3 vocational qualification equivalent to 3 ‘A’ Levels delivered over two- academic years.

  [2] Students undertaking a T Level in Education and Early Years (Educator) are required to complete a minimum of 750 hours across two years and are generally released 2 days per week during College term time plus some block weeks in-year.

• When can a student go on an industry placement?

  The College will timetable in one day per week during term-time for students to attend their industry placement. Students can also utilise non-college days, weekends and holidays to complete the required placement hours. For work experience students, this can be any time of year in agreement with the student’s teaching staff, but is normally planned for the 2^nd half of the Summer term when all course exams and assessments have been undertaken

• What is the typical duration of an industry placement?

  The minimum hours for a T Level industry placement is 315 hours over a two-year course. The typical hours of a work placement day would be 8 hours per day including a 1-hour lunch.

• What you need to do:

  • Get in touch with the Industry Placement Team to log your interest
  • Ensure you have a safe and healthy workplace to support a quality industry placement – the College will work with you to ensure you have a written [1] Health & Safety Policy/ Statement and appropriate Risk Assessments in place that can be shared and communicated with students on placement/ work experience
  • Ensure you have suitable staff to supervise students on placement and think about a work plan that a student could be involved in

  [1] For businesses with less than 5 employees and does not legally require written H&S documentation, the College is looking to develop more robust ways of supporting high quality and safe working practices with placement hosts

• What we will do:

  • Work with you to find you a student for your work environment
  • Support you with the completion of placement documentation – including H&S paperwork
  • Ensure the student is work ready and manage expectations with the role and behaviours required in the workplace with the student
  • Review your safe working practices with you to ensure you are able to support a high quality placement and then visit [1] you through the placement at key points to review the student’s progress and achievements

  [1] For Work Experience placements, the College will visit you initially to agree suitability and safety with the placement prior to its start but will keep in touch by phone regarding a student’s progress with you, where the placement is for 1 week’s duration or equivalent only

Looking for more information?

Visit our Open Days or speak to our friendly Industry Placements team:
Call 01962 797415 or email ip@sparsholt.ac.uk

We also deliver T Level and Foundation T Level programmes at our sister campus, Andover College.