This government is committed to T levels. There is no doubt about that. Since their announcement in 2017, they have been lauded as the new “gold-standard” of technical education. 

It might, therefore, seem surprising that the person appointed to lead the development and implementation of the qualifications had no prior experience of the further education sector. So why did the Department for Education hire Sue Lovelock as deputy director for T levels delivery in 2017?

“They wanted someone who was experienced in getting things up and running and managing projects in government,” she says. “I could bring those skills. I got involved in T levels when we were having lots of question like: what is the T level? And who should study it? I’ve been able to see that through from the planning stages to the first teaching of them in September, which has been brilliant. 

“It’s definitely been one of the most satisfying things I’ve done in government, to get something from almost a sheet of paper to delivery, with all of the added challenges of 2020.”

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Lovelock was born in Morden, South London. She had experience of the further education sector from a young age: her dad was an apprentice with BT, and stayed on at BT for life, while her mum was a nurse.

Early experience of FE

At school, she loved history and English - and at first dreamed of being a detective, and then an archaeologist. She soon realised that she wasn’t up for spending hours on her knees in the dust - and went on to complete A levels in English, history and media before going on to study international history at the London School of Economics.

It was a part-time job she had while at university that sparked a desire to want to work for the government. She had an administration role at a housing association that was specifically focused on vulnerable young people - and she says that she became interested in the role of government and local authorities in helping people. And when she Googled how to work in government, the fast-track scheme into the civil service came out top.

Lovelock says she hadn’t heard much about the process - and only realised how competitive it was once she’d started. She attributes her success in the assessment to a job she had as a teenager: working at McDonald’s.

“I always thought that it was quite good leadership training and meant that when you went into that sort of assessment, you were used to leading people, even if it was to refill the straws, rather than a civil service context,” she says. 

“I always felt like it was something about having more of that work experience that was helpful for those sorts of assessments.” 

Her first posting was in the Department for Transport - the 9/11 attacks had just happened and a lot of her work was focused on port security. It was really interesting work, she says - but one memory, in particular, sticks out. 

“I went to some of the real industrial heartlands where they didn’t get a huge amount of 22-year old women coming in often, so it was quite a culture shock. In the main, it was fine, but one of my most distinct memories is going into a boardroom and it having page three topless girls plastered all down the side of the walls,” she says.

“It was in the early 2000s, so it wasn’t that long ago. I don’t think you would have seen that outside of the shipping imports industry really at that point, but it was extraordinary.”

The fast-track scheme resulted in Lovelock moving to work in communities and local government. There, she worked on regeneration housing and planning, and rose up to be deputy director. 

She says that some of her proudest work in the sector was in the 2008-09 recession, putting in interventions to prevent repossessions, like the mortgage rescue scheme, which enabled local authorities to pay for houses so that families who couldn’t afford their payments could stay in their homes. She also worked a lot with the banks to ensure that they were on hand to offer support to families - and, crucially, had good communication on their packages of support. 

Lovelock says that working on policy that has a real impact and improves people’s lives has always been important to her. 

“I’ve always liked to be involved in programmes and projects in government that have a tangible outcome attached and are helping to improve the life chances and opportunities for people who are struggling,” she says.

Leading the charge on T levels

In 2017, Lovelock stepped up to a new challenge and moved across to the Department for Education as deputy director to work on the development of T levels. She says that she’s really proud of the qualifications - especially the extent to which they have been developed with providers.

“Where these sorts of initiatives have gone wrong in the past, it’s because we haven’t listened carefully enough to the providers that we’re working with and it hasn’t been a partnership effort,” she says.

“When we were struggling with things that were a bit tricky, we’d talk to them about it and help them, help us formulate the answer. When we got to the launch point in September, it was just fantastic and it felt like a really collaborative team effort.”

The launch of T levels in September 2020 didn’t quite go off without a hitch, however. Out of the 50 original providers, six pulled out of delivery - and many concerns have been raised about the viability of the extensive work placements as companies struggle through the pandemic. Some questioned whether or not the launch should even go ahead. 

Lovelock is firm in her beleif that the government was right to launch the qualifications at that time - and says that providers and students were ready to go.

“It’s not a decision that we took lightly. We did think really hard about it. We had providers who, in the main, were saying, ‘We want to go ahead. We’ve done all of the preparation work. We’ve got students recruited,’” she says.

“Obviously, it has been a challenging year for everyone, but actually they’ve got off to a really good start and I think that has given me the confidence that we made the right decision.”

Lovelock says that the decision over whether or not to allow the T-level work placements to happen virtually is a “difficult judgement”. 

“Everyone can remember how important it is to make links with people, to have that person that can induct you in and show you the ropes in a more hands-on way than is necessarily going to be possible in a virtual sense,” she says.

“We’re talking about people who are still really quite young, not someone who is an experienced professional who is moving from one place to the next. It’s 17-, 18-year-olds, and probably their first experience in the workplace. I can understand the instinct that people want to move to something virtual, but I think we do have a bit of time to try and make sure that they can get that real-life experience.”

Last week, the government’s consultation on level 3 qualifications closed - and there are concerns that the system could become binary: offering students a choice of an A level or a T level. Lovelock says that the DfE is listening to the sector’s views - but that it is ambitious about T levels becoming a “primary choice” for students. 

She adds that good careers advice is critical - and that you people need help to navigate all of the choices available to them. 

“It’s just daunting when you’re trying to work out what you want to do and to navigate all of the information that’s available. It’s not surprising that people revert to those familiar routes,” she says. 

“Some of the young people that we did focus groups with on T levels said at the outset that there was a feeling that there wasn’t any other option than an A level, and that they had to do it even though they didn’t want to. That can’t be right; there’s so many other routes available and opportunities for people to build their skills.” 

When it comes to her own skillset, Lovelock says that she has lots of energy and is very focused on getting results. 

“I really like energising the team to get things done. I’m really invested in their personal career success,s so I spent a lot of time talking to my teams about what they want to get out of the role for their career, how can I support them, and what their learning and development goals are. If you can invest in people’s development and they can see that they’re able to learn and develop during a role, you get much better performance out of them,” she says. 

“I think that’s why we’ve had some great success on T levels because we’ve just all rolled up our sleeves, tried to find a way through programmes and problems and to find a route to delivery.”

Partnerships between colleges and employers

And there have been challenges along the way, Lovelock admits - with more to come. 

“It’s about that partnership between colleges and employers, and both having the commitment to that partnership and really making it work. When you go to international systems, you see the depth and breadth of the relationships that they have between technical education and employers. It really brings to life how critical that relationship is,” she says. 

“I think the FE White Paper really puts that at the heart of everything that we’re trying to do. But we’re going to need providers and employers to really seize those opportunities to shape skills provision.”

Shaping skills provision and policy is clearly something that Lovelock is no longer a stranger to - and in 2019, her work was recognised when she was appointed as director of professional and technical education at the DfE. 

And although she says that she only intended to stay in the civil service for a couple of years, 20 or so years later, she says she is very committed to stay where she is. 

“It can be a relentless job, but I think it does suit me as a person. Some people really thrive in busy jobs - and the only job I’ve ever done that I really didn’t enjoy was one where I had absolutely nowhere near enough work to do,” she says. 

“I know that I’m a happier and more productive person if I’m in a job that is stretching me than if I’m in a job where I’m counting down the hours until the end of the day.”

And as long as the spotlight shines on further education - and the government pushes ahead with its ambitious proposals set out in the Skills for Jobs White Paper, Lovelock certainly won’t be counting down the hours any time soon.