T Level Case Study: Dayton Bond

Dayton said: “I chose a T Level over going to A-Levels because it allowed me to focus on one subject that I was fascinated by and the course was more practical than theory which was fantastic for me as I learn a lot more doing things practically.

“My placement was 315 Hours at St Benedict’s High School. I was there every Thursday for about a year and I was at college every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

“What I liked the most was the server management pieces of the course — creating operational windows servers and setting them up with Windows deployment is something I’m strangely good at and I enjoyed doing that.

“With my placement I really enjoyed solving difficult issues that people had with IT and trying to make solutions that would make it a lot easier; for example, we had a lot of issues with iPads not wanting to connect to the management server and it was interesting trying to find a solution to get those to work.

“Mainly I developed my IT skills — networking, server management, cyber, ticket management — but college and placement really helped with my communications and teamwork skills.

“I would never have thought two years ago that I would be as confident with talking and presenting as I am now.

“Lakes gives you a level of freedom and responsibility that you would never get in sixth form and A-Levels”

“Placement really helped me as what I was doing there (IT support) was the same as what we were doing at college; the skills I learnt at placement I could use directly at college in my exams and classwork.

“College and the careers team helped me a lot with getting my personal statement done for university and my application for the Sellafield degree apprenticeship.

“They were fantastic — I am very thankful for them being there.

“My lecturers Andrew, James and Sam are all really good at what they do and were extremely helpful with feedback and anything I didn’t understand or any issues I had.

“They made me enjoy education again which is something I wouldn’t have believed I would ever enjoy if you spoke to me in Year 11.

“Lakes gives you a level of freedom and responsibility that you would never get in sixth form and A-Levels.

“Andrew, James and Sam are fantastic lecturers and the resources you have access to at Lakes give you the best chance to learn the skills you need.

“I think the practical skills that I learned and that real world experience you get gives you a massive advantage compared to A-Level students as you learn real world skills and knowledge, not just the theory.

“T Levels also give you a massive confidence boost in teamwork and communication — that’s why I think I’m where I’m at now as a Level 6 degree apprentice at Sellafield.”