![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_0-13.jpg\")
Ivy Sharples, Megan Young and Sana Mahmood(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\nStudents on vocational courses have challenged those looking down on technical educationIvy Sharples, Megan Young and Sana Mahmood(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n
Students at a Manchester college say people can be ‘weird’ about their technical qualifications and even deem it to be ‘not a real course’.<\/p>\n
Ivy Sharples, Megan Young and Sana Mahmood were among the students collecting their results at the Manchester College in Openshaw today (August 14).<\/p>\n
All proud and ‘chuffed’ with their results, the three all studied a T Level in Education and Early Years, but are all going on to different university courses: psychology with counselling, primary education, and education, society and culture respectively.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was an assembly at my school in year 11 about T Levels, and everything they listed off was everything I was looking for,” said Ivy. “It had all the experience built in. It really interlinks with employers.”<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter our work placements, we all got multiple job offers,” agreed Sana. “But we had to turn them down as we were all planning to go to uni.”<\/p>\n
Despite their success, all three agreed there was a degree of prejudice towards the course they had embarked on.<\/p>\n
T-Levels are vocational qualifications based on more practical subjects, with 80pc of teaching happening in the classroom and the remaining 20pc made up of a work placement – the equivalent of 45 days full time with an employer.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople can be weird about it, they don\u2019t look at it as a real course and only see A Levels as the thing that counts,” said Sana.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s this perception that A Levels are harder because they study three subjects, but we\u2019re juggling revision, exams, coursework and placements,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s this idea that, if you\u2019re not doing A Levels, you\u2019re not \u2018on it\u2019. It\u2019s weird.\u201d<\/p>\n
Megan’s plans for celebrating over the next few days were straightforward: “Pub then town. Then work, then pub, then town.”<\/p>\n
Fellow student Nasreen Begum said she had also initially faced some resistance from her family. \u201cI don\u2019t think they understood it at first,\u201d said the 19-year-old, who scored D* D D in her Business and Entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_0-14.jpg\")
Nasreen Begum with her results. (Image: Manchester Evening News )<\/p>\n
\u201cAll my family did A levels so I think they thought T Levels were for people who don\u2019t do well in school,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started out doing A Levels \u2013 I was doing academic subjects like law \u2013 but it just wasn\u2019t for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoing a BTEC gave me so much more time. With the days off I was able to revise and do coursework without stressing myself out, and I could get a part time job so I wasn\u2019t worried about money.<\/p>\n
Nasreen said she would shortly be beginning a degree apprenticeship in investment banking with AJ Bell. \u201cI think my family see now that I\u2019ve excelled,” she smiled.<\/p>\n
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham<\/a>, who has been a long-time advocate for technical education<\/a>, was there on the day to meet staff and students.<\/p>\n “Honestly, I think there is a big amount of snobbery towards technical education, both in the political and media world,” he told the M.E.N. “The message is that it’s A levels and the university route that matters.<\/p>\n “There will be lots of politicians today talking about A levels and maybe not recognising the young people with T levels or BTECs. If I was on of those young people I would think, am I seen, am I valued in the same way?<\/p>\n “But this country has been sending out that message for quite a long time,” he said, adding that he did not believe Britain had ever ‘cracked’ technical education.<\/p>\n “I do think more could be done,” he continued. “I think we need a school curriculum that sends out the clear message that academic and technical are equals.<\/p>\n “We have had a higher level of take up of T levels in Greater Manchester than in England on average – and I think it\u2019s because we have promoted them.”<\/p>\n Mr Burnham added that the GMCA had ‘worked really hard’ to get ‘big name employers’ behind T levels. “There’s going to be a big increase of around seven hundred high-quality work placements available from September.<\/p>\n “I\u2019ve got the sense that the message of parity is increasingly starting to land.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students on vocational courses have challenged those looking down on technical educationIvy Sharples, Megan Young and Sana Mahmood(Image:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[121960,8916,748,2266,393,4884,2465,71996,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-345379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-a-level-results","9":"tag-andy-burnham","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-education","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-manchester","15":"tag-openshaw","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115030343367809301","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_14-08-2025_RJ_ALevels-20JPG.jpg\")
Mayor Andy Burnham at the Manchester College Openshaw campus on results day 2025. (Image: Ryan Jenkinson | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n