Speeches by Dixon.

“I would not want to suggest that our UK students are workshy in any way and would be put off by that. They are extremely studious. There was no doubt that the ones who I met at Shipley college, who were doing their healthcare and doing an amazing placement at the local Bradford Royal Infirmary hospital, were very commi…”

“This is the key point. You talked about half of them perhaps wanting to pursue university entry. If there were a delay on completion, that would affect people’s ability to take up places at university. Has that problem largely been solved by giving UCAS points?”

“When I say providers, I am talking about colleges, not the awarding organisations. Where does it leave colleges in terms of any uplift in their funding to reflect the higher fees per student that they will be paying to awarding organisations?”

“Are you confident, then, that by both making it more attractive and doing your public awareness campaigns you are going to close the gap? At the moment, half of prospective pupils are still unaware of T Levels. Where do you expect that to be in another year’s time?”

“There is a stop-start approach. To some extent, it is due to a lack of interest. Certain T Levels have either never made it to delivery or have been withdrawn even before getting going. Then you have these other ones such as healthcare science and onsite construction. Students have enrolled, but they have subsequently …”

“It sounds like you do a lot of engagement on the employer side and these decisions are being very driven by employers. Are you doing student engagement? Do you look at where the demand is for different subjects and what choices students would like to have available to them? From what I have heard, that seems a bit lack…”

“In the NAO Report, paragraph 2.8 shows the year-on-year decline in the number of students passing. I also understand from my local college that it only really counts for anything if you pass with merit. I did not see a breakdown here about the pass with merit ratings. If we compare the numbers with A Levels and other t…”

“You are expecting that it will be higher for the longer-established ones. This was the second part of my question. What are you aiming at as a target?”

“You are confident that it is value for money for the colleges, in terms of both the quality and the fee that these awarding organisations are going to be charging.”

“It is very important to listen to those students who are exiting early and understand why. It sounds like you have done some of that work and are now seeking to address those factors. Have you done an analysis to break down by socioeconomic status, race and gender who is dropping out and who is sustaining to completion…”

“I am sorry. I just want to get something clear. You have pre-empted where I was going next, but I was talking about those who are not completers. I mean the 26%—I cannot remember where it was—of people who are starting a T Level and not completing. Among the group of people who are not completing, is there a disproport…”

“If I may, I will come on to those who are enrolling on to T Levels and in which subjects. Again, looking at the data—you started to mention it there—some groups are under-represented in general compared with some of the other vocational qualifications. People with special educational needs seem to have a higher propens…”

“Yes, but it is more of a problem in vocational technical qualifications.”

“Ironically, if I may, Chair, I would suggest a reverse innovation. I went to Zimbabwe, where I was looking at an amazing programme of re-engaging adolescent girls in education and vocational training. The Open University here had partnered with them in rewriting the school curriculum. In one of the lessons that I obser…”

“Just for clarification, it seems that these awarding organisations effectively had a monopoly in this first period. Therefore, the providers were a bit at the mercy of the fees that these awarding organisations wanted to charge. I have understood that you have changed that with the adaptive pricing so that, if student …”

“Providers will continue to be price-takers.”

“Did they then not put the prices up? They were not fixed to stick with the original thing they had bid for. When they realised the numbers were going down, did they not put the prices up?”

“In terms of completion, the other factor in the Report is about students who do the foundation but do not necessarily progress. Again, what would you want to do to ensure that more of those who start end up completing? In particular, how can we ensure that more of those who take the foundation go on to complete the ful…”

“My constituency has Shipley college, which is offering T Levels. One challenge that it has raised with me is that part of the reason for having T Levels in these sectors is the sector shortages, but that also makes it extremely difficult to hire the tutors. I really wanted to probe on two elements to follow up what has…”

“What about the funding rate though? The industry exchange sounds like a good initiative, but what if the basic funding rate is not there to cover the cost of the tutors?”