Challenge
In 2017, Chancellor Philip Hammond announced a £500m per year plan to reform technical education and introduce a new T Levels qualification described as “the most ambitious post-16 education reform since A-levels were introduced 70 years ago”.
The Department for Education (DfE) immediately set about writing policy for the new qualification, working across a complex environment with stakeholders across multiple teams and organisations.
Solution
Working closely with 10 senior leaders from across the programme, our focus was to pull out core interaction points with users, helping to define the scope of the service. We then went on to conduct user research to understand their expectations of the service better. This combined approach enabled us to create a service vision for T Levels that consolidates multiple streams of work into a unified service strategy, which in turn supports the T Levels delivery strategy.
Impact
- Developed a service vision map that would illustrate to the wider programme what scaled delivery should accomplish from a user needs perspective. This clear, unified direction for the entire programme, ensured all teams understood the end goal and could align their efforts towards meeting actual user needs, ultimately improving the programme's focus and effectiveness.
- By establishing a strategic approach and supporting the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) delivery, we were able to quickly test and validate the T Levels concept, reducing risk and enabling faster iteration.
- Facilitated stakeholder alignment and collaboration across the programme in order to streamline decision-making, and create a more cohesive approach to programme delivery, resulting in time savings and use of resources whilst ensuring a more integrated implementation.
- Supported the delivery of the T Levels website MVP to ensure students and employers had access to information, helping potential students and employers understand T Levels, which would in turn increase engagement, attract more participants, and support the broader educational and workforce development objectives.
- Through conducting delivery assessments of previous work and gaps, we minimised risks of delays and quality shortfalls, ensuring the ESFA could meet critical timelines while maintaining high standards of system delivery.
- We created a target operating model and roadmap to support how capabilities across the programme will transform as it scales and matures over the next ten years. This long-term strategic planning provided a clear path for organisational growth and development, enabling proactive capability building, resource allocation, and adaptive strategy that supports sustained programme success and evolution.