21/12/2023

Launch of T Level Collaboration with Class Of Your Own

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We are very excited to announce that we are partnering with Class Of Your Own, the award-winning creators of the Design Engineer Construct! (“DEC”) Learning Programme to deliver our new T Level industry placement programme. This forms part of our vision for an education sector that elevates outcomes for both students and staff.

T Levels are new qualifications in England that provide students with an alternative post-16 technical pathway, embedding content that aligns with the needs of industry in preparing young people for work or further education and training. T Levels are structured with 80% of classroom time with a sixth form or further education college, with the remaining 20% spent with an employer on a dedicated work placement programme.

Bouygues UK and Class Of Your Own are adapting the impressive DEC Level 2 programme which has provided such an experience to young people since 2013. Aligned with the T Level in Design, Surveying and Planning for Construction, the placement will provide students with a core knowledge of modern construction industry methods by taking a project, in our case a school building project, through concept design and planning, on to site and ultimately through to post occupancy. Many of the key disciplines are covered, and DEC’s focus on sustainable design, digital delivery, carbon and cost management will provide students with an invaluable experience.

Framework Manager, Carol Heneghan, a keen advocate for making construction the career of choice for the next generation explains the Bouygues UK approach to T Levels:

T Levels provide young people with their first real experience of the work place and this vital touch point needs to connect; showing them the vast opportunity that exists in our industry, and in particular how the creative and digital skills young people already have, plus their focus on people and planet, are very much at the fore of the industry.

Providing access to the hugely skilled people and the tools we use at Bouygues UK – and to see the outputs of the exciting array of projects we deliver – will be very beneficial to students and to their teachers. Working with COYO, who have a great deal of experience and a successful track record of not only engaging, but educating young people in schools around the world thanks to fantastic DEC teachers, has provided us with a curriculum based on real work and real world learning. It completely aligns to the DfE’s ambitions – and the ambitions of the industry. To build a ‘golden thread’ through our approach to skills and development, we are also going to be providing the Design Engineer Construct! Learning Programme to the secondary schools on the Frameworks in which we operate in through COYO’s ‘Adopt A School’ scheme. This picks up young people from age 11 to 18, essentially creating a pipeline of students for technical and academic pathways and creates the most enviable talent so desperately needed by the construction industry, around the world.

Alison Watson, MBE, Founder and Chief Executive of Class Of Your Own, said:

Bouygues UK’s mission is to create inspiring and sustainable places where everyone can thrive, today and in the future, so it’s wholly appropriate that COYO, with a mission to educate the future of construction, is working to ensure that every student can thrive throughout their T Level placement. We have always set the bar so high for Built Environment education and our own ‘DEC’ students are our legacy. DEC takes young people through a real-world programme supporting the development of knowledge, skills and behaviours that are fundamental to the industry. These are not just words, and I feel such a sense of pride that Carol Heneghan, who has championed DEC for so many years, gets to see her ambitions come to life now she’s at Bouygues UK. This is going to be an extraordinary opportunity for the industry and education.

The Bouygues UK T Level industry placement programme will be fully available in the new year and can be taken up by current T Level providers and students who have not yet secured placements for 23/24, and for cohorts in 24/25.

For more information get in touch here.