Education Committee examines integrating skills into schools and colleges’ curricula

Evidence Session: Tuesday 18 October, 10am

This session will be available to watch live and on-demand on Parliament.TV      

The Education Committee will question school and college leaders on the ways in which they integrate skills into their curricula and achieve outstanding results for their students.

In this fifth session of the Committee’s Post-16 Qualifications inquiry, MPs will question witnesses on the rollout of T Levels, their views on the effectiveness of the transition programme, the accessibility of T Levels, and experiences of the work placement.

There will also be questions about the Government’s decision to withdraw funding for a number of applied general qualifications such as BTECs, and how this might disproportionately affect students from disadvantaged backgrounds or who have special educational needs.

The cross-party group of MPs will explore how integrating employment-related skills can benefit students in work and life, and whether a broader Baccalaureate-type model at post-16 would be beneficial.

The Committee will take evidence from:

• Yiannis Koursis, Principal and CEO of Barnsley College, the first in its region to offer T Levels.
• Andria Singlehurst, from the Aspirations Academies Trust, which supports its post-16 students to develop work readiness through their Employability Diploma programme. 
• Tina Götschi from the National College for Digital Skills, where every student studies a BTEC National in Computing. Its written evidence has raised concerns that too few black students study computer science and that it tends to be “the preserve of white middle-class areas”. 
• Martin Said from the XP Schools Trust, a multi-academy Trust of mainstream schools with a unique model of teaching knowledge and skills-based content through cross-subject learning expeditions. 

Witnesses from 10.00, 18^th October

• Yiannis Koursis, Principal and CEO, Barnsley College
• Andria Singlehurst, Director of Learning, Aspirations Academies Trust
• Martin Said, Instructional Lead, XP Schools Trust
• Tina Götschi, Sixth Form Principal, Ada, National College for Digital Skills