T Levels – Ariel Lusala, InTandem Systems

T Levels are an alternative to A levels, apprenticeships and other 16 to 19 courses. Equivalent in size to 3 A levels, a T Level focuses on vocational skills and can help students into skilled employment, higher study or apprenticeships.

Each T Level includes an in-depth industry placement that lasts at least 45 days. Students get valuable experience in the workplace while employers get early sight of the new talent in their industry.

T Level students spend 80% of the course in their learning environment, gaining the skills that employers need. The other 20% is a meaningful industry placement, where they put these skills into action.

Ariel Lusala is taking a course in Engineering Design and Development: Manufacturing, and is on placement at InTandem Systems for a series of block weeks interspersed with other weeks spent at Havant and South Downs College.

It was during a school assembly that Ariel first heard about T Levels, where they were described as a cross between A Levels and practical learning. He was thinking of studying A Levels but when his college told him they also offered T Levels he remembered back to that assembly. He says: “Since I liked doing a bit of both I thought, ‘why not?’. I am now using the skills I learn in college in real life as well.”

YouTube influence

It was a slightly alternative route through watching videos on the internet that led Ariel towards a career in the built environment, in particular the work of YouTube personality Colin Furze, whose channel includes videos of him building a tunnel under his house and creating a real working James Bond car complete with gadgets. Ariel explains: “Watching those videos made me think one day I could make something like that myself, and it’s evolved from that into this hands-on work I’m doing now. Now it feels like it’s what I’ve always wanted to be doing.”

Hashika Pieris, Technical Support at InTandem Systems, describes how he has gradually built up the responsibility placed on Ariel and his T Level colleagues, George and Ethan: “We have taught them what we do, the individual components and the general information around building management systems. Throughout the year they have been given tasks of building more complicated panels and boxes and they eventually reached a point where they were building something crucial. Now they know if they don’t build it correctly it won’t work, so they’re under a bit of pressure.”

T- eamwork

One of the big projects Ariel has been involved in with InTandem Systems is building panels that will go into an emergency trailer boiler, which provides a plug-and-play temporary boiler solution providing heating and hot water for commercial premises in the event of a breakdown. Alongside George and Ethan, Ariel has built panels that control the boiler as well as the lighting inside the trailer. Hashika explains: “Once the panels are built they are tested and quality-checked before the students themselves install them into the trailer and they can then see the system operational. There are 20 of these trailers and one of them will be built by our T Level students, which is special for us.”

Ariel feels his T Level course has met his expectations and has given him an accessible route into an industry that appeals to him. He concludes: “T Levels provide a great opportunity to learn a lot and do a lot as well and they really help you excel in a career in engineering.”