A new swathe of 77 Tech Levels have been announced by government today with the aim of providing young people with better vocational training and industry with more skills to draw on.
Designed to be on a par with A Levels, the vocational courses cover a number of engineering and manufacturing functions and are designed to go hand-in-hand with the effort to bolster maths qualifications.
The new Tech Levels include bus and coach maintenance as well as a range of engineering qualifications taking in electronics, manufacturing and mechanical disciplines.
Skills and Enterprise Minister Matthew Hancock said, “Tech Levels ensure young people are prepared to compete in the global jobs market and give employers a crucial say in what skills they need.
“The previous system had become bloated with qualifications that were of no value. These have been stripped out and now young people can clearly see which courses will give them the vital skills they need to get on in life.”
The Tech Levels form part of a strategy to bolster vocational education so that school leavers automatically continue on apprenticeship training if they do not go to university.
There is also a move to create degree-level apprenticeships and to ensure employers structure programmes to better guarantee outcomes and the quality of training offered.
The Confederation of British Industry recently called for tuition fees to be cut in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects to boost engineering.
It says without support industry faces a skills vacuum, particularly with qualified technicians.
