T LEVELS - Neil Baxter - Employer Case Study

Oct 20, 2026

Employer case study describing Neil Baxter’s T Level placement experience within an organisation. The document explains how placements are structured for day-release versus block schedules, assigning students to real team tasks that would otherwise require existing staff time. It highlights key learning transitions from education to professional working life, including workplace conduct, attire, and practical protocols. It also details skill development across soft and technical areas such as Excel, SQL, testing, laptop build, cyber threat detection, and IT service desk support.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages2

Reading Time5 min

AccessFree to download

Placement approach

Day release vs block scheduling

Learning and skills gained

Professional transition

Soft and technical capabilities

Value to employers and the sector

Recruitment and apprenticeship pathways

Benefits and placement challenges

T LEVELS Neil Baxter, Resource Management Lead EMPLOYER CASE STUDY Tell us about your T Level experience... At this moment in time, we have 6 students on placements with us with one that has just finished his placement after 2 years. We see T Levels as being part of our talent pipeline strategy for our apprenticeship roles, but they are also an important part of our community engagement supporting local schools and colleges. Depending on the placement the students have – day release or block – determines how we go about the work we set them. If on a day release each week, we will identify work they will be doing on the placement day or if on a block then the work will be planned week to week. The students have been doing real work in the teams they are in, if they had not been with us, other members of staff would have had to do the tasks. Working in a professional business environment and transitioning from education to work is one of the biggest learning curves for the students. Things like how to behave, what to wear, protocols if you are late or sick, working with older people, taking breaks etc are all things we take for granted but are things that they have had to get to grips with. They also develop both soft and technical skills on their placement. These have ranged from Excel, SQL, testing to building laptops, cyber threat detection, manning our IT service desk and more. The first T Level student we took on was offered a Software Engineer Level 4 apprenticeship. They successfully completed this and are still a permanent member of our Software Engineering team today. Some of our existing T Level students have also applied for our apprenticeship roles and are in the final selection process. T Level placements are a fantastic way for students to develop both their employability and technical skills and sets them up really well for future employment. Would you recommend T Levels to other employers? Yes definitely. We have had some great experiences with the T Level students and have ended up taking a few of them into full time apprenticeship positions. What do you like about T Levels? T Levels support the workforce of the future as well as giving our staff the opportunity to mentor others to develop their skills. It’s thoroughly rewarding seeing the students learn new skills and support our teams doing work of value. How beneficial do you think T Levels will be to the sector? I think T Levels will be extremely beneficial, it’s a great way to enable students to not only get insight into an organisation but to also have exposure to different types of roles. We have been very impressed by the students we have had on placements so far; they bring different ideas, and they challenge situations with our existing staff. Do you think employers will value T Levels? Yes, I do think employers value T Levels especially with the high calibre of students we have seen over the last 3 years. It is, however, still quite difficult to balance placements with existing workloads making securing placements in our business quite difficult still. WFS_A0228d | V1 . 0 | Aug 2023 Copyright in this document belongs to, and is used under licence from, Pearson Education Limited, © 2023. T-LEVELS’ is a registered trade mark of the Department for Education. ‘T Level’ is a registered trade mark of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education. ‘Institute for Apprenticeships & Technical Education’ and logo are registered trade marks of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education. Pearson and logo are registered trade marks of Pearson.

FAQs

How are T Level placement tasks planned for day-release versus block placements?

For day-release students, work is identified for the placement day each week. For block placements, work is planned week to week.

What kinds of skills do students develop during placements?

Students develop soft and technical skills, including Excel, SQL, testing, building laptops, cyber threat detection, and working on the IT service desk.

Why does the employer recommend T Levels to other organisations?

They report strong experiences, including taking some T Level students into full-time apprenticeship positions, and value how T Levels support future workforce development.

Oct 20, 2026

Uploaded by Alex Sinclair