T Level Guide for Employers - Digital Support & Services

EMPLOYER GUIDE TO INDUSTRY PLACEMENTS Digital Support and Services Occupational Specialism: Digital Infrastructure

Thank you for your consideration in providing an Industry Placement opportunity for our students.

Industry Placements give young people studying towards a T Level technical qualification valuable practical experience, helping to prepare them for the workplace.

Employers like you are helping to grow the talent of our future workforce by developing their technical and employability skills and building their confidence.

This guide will provide valuable information on the Placement process including: • Taking the first step • Who, what, how, why and when • Creating a job description • Selecting the right candidate to meet your needs • Grofar • Setting learning objectives • Support throughout the placement • Expectations and responsibilities

Taking the first step You may be concerned that the process of setting up an Industry Placement is complicated and time consuming but this simply isn’t the case.

You will be assigned a dedicated Work Placement Officer (WPO) to guide you through the whole process and can be as involved in the selection process as you want to be.

The first step would be for one of our WPO’s to get in touch to: • Discuss your business needs • Confirm health & safety responsibilities • Agree a placement schedule of dates • Outline the job description • Introduce you to Grofar, our interactive digital placement platform

The who, what, how, why and when?

Who are the students we are placing: • Primarily 16 –18-year-olds, living in and around the Harlow area • Studying T Level in Digital Support and Services (at Level 3, equivalent to A Levels) • Skilled with basic knowledge of most digital infrastructure related principles • Pursuing a career in the setting up, problem solving and trouble-shooting side of the digital infrastructure industry • Looking to progress to an Apprenticeship or University

What should students experience on their placement: • A mix of office and ‘hands-on’ work • Technical tasks such as troubleshooting and problem solving issues • Practical tasks using tools and equipment • Opportunities to participate in meetings and join site visits • Working with others with different skills, expertise, and experience

How have Harlow College prepared the learner for work readiness: • Growing wider employability skills and workplace behaviours throughout the course curriculum • Developing technical skills through practical tasks • Facilitating varied employer encounters throughout the course curriculum • Providing careers information, advice and guidance

Why this benefits you as an employer: • Extra resources for your projects and day-to-day operations • Addresses current and future skills shortages in your industry by growing your own workforce • Fresh ideas from young people • Inspiring the next generation to work in your industry • Strengthen your recruiting pipeline and increase diversity • Give your employees the opportunity to develop management and mentoring skills • Support the vision of becoming a learning organisation, build brand value and corporate reputation

When does the placement take place: • 315 hours (approximately 9 weeks) over a 2 year period • Hours can be in a block or spread throughout the year • Placement can be split between two employers • Schedule can be shaped to meet employer and student needs

Creating a job description Defining the placement role will help ensure we match you with a student who has the right skills, development needs and career aspirations to suit your business need. Our Work Placement team will work with you to create a bespoke job description that will include: • Objective of the role • Typical activities • Prior skills and knowledge required • Technical skills development opportunities

Selecting the right candidate to meet your needs We can be as flexible as possible when helping you select your candidate.

You may wish to shortlist and interview several students or it may suit you to be less hands on and leave us to match the right student to your role.

We can also arrange for short ‘taster’ placements if you wanted to work with a student prior to agreeing a longer placement.

Either way, we will manage the process efficiently and with the minimum of fuss.

Grofar Grofar is an Industry Placement management platform that allows us to plan, track and assess placements simply and efficiently. As a placement provider you will also have access to the system which will allow you to: • Receive clear communications and directions for delivering work placements • Save time by responding to College requests for information through simple e-forms • Submit all applications and supply Health & Safety documents online • Validate all student hours weekly using a simple online form • Engage more with the work placement process Your designated WPO will guide you through the simple set up process and explain the functions of Grofar.

Setting learning objectives We will work with you to align the role to the learning objectives the student is required to achieve their performance outcomes.

The following table identifies the skills and knowledge students are expected to achieve through their occupational specialism.

Please refer to the table on the next spread.

Occupational Specialism: Digital Infrastructure Performance outcome

Knowledge acquisition • Control techniques in protecting the digital security • The types of threats and vulnerabilities

Apply procedures and controls to maintain the digital security of an organisation and its data

• Be able to mitigate threats and vulnerabilities • Process of risk management • Tools for the analysis of threats and vulnerabilities

Discover, evaluate and apply reliable sources of knowledge

Skills acquisition • Apply and maintain procedures and security controls in the installation, configuration and support of end user services • Apply and monitor appropriate business control techniques and policies and procedures • Install and configure software to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities

• Organisational policies and procedures and risk mitigation

• Conduct a security risk assessment in line with the risk management process for a system

• Types of sources of digital knowledge

• Identify sources of knowledge and apply factors that legitimise their use

• The factors of reliability and validity • Methods of communication and sharing knowledge

• Compare options of sources and rationalise the actions taken • Search for information to support a topic or scenarios within digital support

Full details of the Technical Qualification specifications can be found here

Performance outcome

Knowledge acquisition • An awareness of the principles of network and infrastructure design

Explain, install, configure, test and manage both physical and virtual infrastructure

• Understand the elements infrastructure and associated technologies • Explore the advantages and limitations of physical servers • Configure cyber-security software • Problem/incident request management • Support processes provided to end users

Skills acquisition

• Install, configure and test physical and virtual networks • Maintain the effective functioning of physical or virtual networks • Demonstrate continuous improvement by maintaining the effective functioning of a range of hardware and network solutions

Support throughout the placement The College will provide support throughout the placement for you the employer, as well as the student.

Your designated WPO is always available to answer any questions or discuss progress. Attendance and progress is recorded and monitored through Grofar, our digital placement platform which will also provide you with a direct communication channel to flag any concerns.

During the placement the College will complete two monitoring visits at a time convenient to you. This is an opportunity to review the progress being made towards completing the agreed learning objectives.

Once the placement is completed there will be an opportunity to evaluate the experience and hopefully plan your next Industry Placement!

The first step ...

Hopefully, you are now ready to take the first step to providing an Industry Placement.

To proceed, or if you have any questions please contact our WPO team who are waiting to help.

Email: WPO@harlow-college.ac.uk

Email us WPO@harlow-college.ac.uk