Digital Software Development T-level

At least five GCSEs at Grade 4 or above all from the core subjects including English, with at least a Grade 5 in Maths. If you have completed GCSE computing we would expect at least a Grade 4 to show interest in the industry.

The course splits into key knowledge, skills, and behaviours - We introduce a set of topics using an interactive project for students to explore best practices and syntax in a real activity. Each lesson contains a teacher-led lecture element to introduce a new concept followed by solo or group activities to explore this knowledge. This can take the form of a report, practical task, or group discussion.

For example: in our Legislation topics - students are provided with a series of "cases" and put into teams for and against. We then debate in a mock courtroom to understand the complexities of Digital Legislation and finally determine whether the defendant is innocent, or guilty! Alternatively, in Business Context, students look at emerging technology to create and showcase ideas to their peers in a friendly competition to attempt to win their investment.

For this specialism, we also cover programming in Python over a very wide range of skills such as using existing libraries effectively and building solid, working programs and interfaces to set task briefs.

Your T-Level is made up of three components: Core, Specialism and Placement.

Core is made up of two written papers and a practical called the Employer Set Project (ESP). Core papers are sat at the end of first year and are 2-2.5 hours long. The ESP is broken down into several tasks and is assessed over two weeks and is sat in the November of second year. Core makes up 50% of your final grade and focuses on assessing your Knowledge and some Skills from the course such as: The impact of digitification on culture and inclusion; exploring digital in a business context; understanding and applying security principles; and applying root cause analysis and troubleshooting.

Specialism is assessed via an Occupational Specialism Project (OSP). This is a large practical project lasting roughly 30 hours broken down into several assessment tasks and sat over the second half of the second year. Specialism makes up 50% of your final grade and focuses on assessing your Skills and some Knowledge from the course such as: Planning for and designing a solution to a problem, fixing code and implementing additional requirements to improve the function, testing and appraising practices.

Placement is a mandatory part of the qualification, covered over 315 hours at a digital work placement. You need to show "good" levels of behaviours throughout your placement through a series of workplace reviews conducted by the college and your employer. Your course allows one day a week (set at the start of each year) and two two-week blocks per year to help support you with time to do this. Placement doesn't affect your grade, but is required to achieve the qualification as a whole, and is used to develop you Skills and Behaviours in the workplace.

Digital T-Levels have several educational and progressional events and trips throughout the course. This includes varies on fresh opportunities each year but will include a visit to RMC Retro - "The Cave", and visits to University providers for learning workshops and bespoke open days. Each of these trips is roughly £35 (some more expensive and some cheaper) and there will be up to three offered each year of the course.

There is a small course booklet that students should keep hold of with a small cost attached from our printing department. Course textbooks are available from the Library or for purchase on Amazon and highly recommended to succeed in this course. A computer/laptop isn't a requirement but access to one at home would be useful for revision and different tasks, study spaces are available for use at the college.

Pearson