Technical Matters journal - University Technical Colleges

ISSUE 5 WINTER 2016

Technical

Matters Journal for University Technical Colleges

UTC News Guest comment David Sainsbury WISE words at UTC Leeds A tale of two institutions A premium partnership Jaguar Land Rover and UTCs A practical guide to craftsmanship A new Baccalaureate Staff profiles Student profiles

TECHNICAL MATTERS ISSUE 2 SPRING 2015

Introducing the UP Mini2 3D printer

3D printing should be affordable • It should be reliable • It should be accessible The new UP Mini 2 from Tiertime is all of these things and more which makes it ideal for the classroom environment. Affordable

Let’s get right to the point. The UP Mini 2 is just £464.99 which is a fraction of the cost of many of the other desktop printers on the market. PLA material is £33.98 a kilo and ABS is £42.00 a kilo which means that it is also low cost to run.

Accessible

Connect to your UP Mini 2 via USB cable or over WiFi using either a PC or Mac. There is also an iPad app for these who want to control their prints from a mobile device. It features an LCD touch screen which can be used for all configuration tasks meaning you don’t even need a computer to get your UP Mini 2 set up and ready to print. But when it comes to 3D printing, accessibility is about much more than how you connect to your machine. It’s about how students can gain access to the printer and how many jobs you can put through and once again, this comes back to price – for the cost of a single machine from some other mainstream brands of desktop 3D printers, you can have 5 UP Mini machines and this means that more students can be printing their 3D designs more of the time.

Reliable

The UP Mini 2 features automatic nozzle height detection and software assisted platform levelling so that you can be sure that your printer is correctly calibrated for perfect prints every time. The fully enclosed construction means that the print bed and ambient temperature remain constant to prevent any warping of models.

Technical Specifications Build Volume

120 x 120 x 120 mm (W x H x D)

Print Head

Single, with quick change mechanism.

Layer Thickness

0.15/0.20/0.25/0.30/0.35mm

Supporting Structure

Smart Support Technology – automatically generated and easily removable supports

Platform Levelling

Automatic nozzle height detection, software assisted leveling

Build Platform Type

Heated, with perforated print board or UP Flex print board

Connectivity

WiFi and USB

Operating System

Win XP/7/8/10, Mac OS

Advanced Features

Integrated air filtration, 4-inch LCD touch-screen, onboard file storage, retractable aluminium carry handle.

£464.99 Order code 25-0055

www.rapidonline.com [email protected]

www.rapidonline.com 2

ISSUE 5 WINTER 2016

Welcome Technical education, technical education, technical education. Paraphrasing a past politician captures the priority a high quality technical education was given by Justine Greening in her first speech to the Conservative Party conference as the new Secretary of State for Education. This will be music to the ears of supporters of UTCs who, like Justine Greening, are determined to put the quality of technical education on a par with the quality of academic education. Transferring what is said in a conference speech to national policy remains the challenge. The new Secretary of State is to be applauded for publicly stating technical education as one of the priorities during her term of office. For parents and students, exam success is an important milestone on their journey to an apprenticeship, employment or higher education. The UTC News section provides some highlights from across UTCs to show the achievements of our students in this summer’s examinations. In the same section, we celebrate the 11 new UTCs who opened their doors this September, taking the number to 48 now open in England. Encouraging young women to study science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and to enter careers in those fields, is the work of Women Into Science and Engineering (WISE). In an interview with Fay Best, governor at the newly opened UTC Leeds, she describes how her experience as a WISE Associate has influenced all areas of UTC Leeds to help break down barriers and stereotypes to engage girls in advanced manufacturing and engineering. Amy Broom, Director of STEM at Medway UTC and Susan Smith, Science teacher at UTC Oxfordshire feature in our staff profiles section. Each in their own way represent the success women can achieve through STEM careers. They describe how their commercial and teaching careers brought them to where they are today. Echoing some similar themes in a wide ranging interview is José Lopes, Head of Technical Excellence at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and Chair of Governors at WMG Academy for Young Engineers. José explains why JLR is such a committed supporter of the UTC movement and how this is evident in many forms from governance to curriculum development.

Employer engagement is ‘hardwired’ into UTCs, states David Sainsbury, Chairman, Independent Panel on Technical Education. In his guest comment, he outlines the main recommendations of his groundbreaking report to reform and simplify post 16 technical qualifications to provide clear pathways for young people wishing to enter careers in the digital industries, construction, engineering and manufacturing or health sciences. A ‘must read’ for anyone with a keen interest in an area in much need of reform. It is not only employer engagement which is hardwired into UTCs, universities also play a central role. In a ‘Tale of two institutions’, Professor David Hornby, University of Sheffield looks back over his two-year secondment to Liverpool Life Sciences UTC to establish the ‘Innovation Laboratory’. He tells his personal story and shares his enthusiasm for the opportunities created by the UTC movement for students with a broad range of academic and vocational aspirations. Not satisfied with one contribution from a professor, this edition has two with Professor Tim Cain, Edge Hill University reviewing a recent report commissioned by City and Guilds from the Centre for RealWorld Learning which seeks to revitalise our notion of ‘craftsmanship’ for the 21st century. Many of the aptitudes for high quality craftsmanship outlined in the report are those we would seek to foster in UTC students. Hope you agree there is something for everyone in this issue. Enjoy the read! Paul Spencer Editor

TECHNICAL MATTERS

Contents Welcome

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UTC News

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Guest comment: A national 10 system of technical education that works in the marketplace David Sainsbury, Chairman, Independent Panel on Technical Education WISE words at UTC Leeds 12 Fay Best, Governor UTC Leeds and WISE Associate A tale of two institutions Professor David Hornby, University of Sheffield

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Jaguar Land Rover and 18 UTCs – a premium partnership José Lopes, Head of Technical Excellence, Jaguar Land Rover Enduring commitment 20 Andy Cree, Captain Royal Navy, UTC Team Leader A practical guide 22 to craftsmanship Reviewed by Professor Tim Cain, Director of Research Centre for Schools, Colleges and Teacher Education, Edge Hill University A new Baccalaureate 24 Olly Newton, Director of Policy and Research, Edge Foundation Staff profiles

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Student profiles

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Editorial Team Professor Tim Cain, Edge Hill University; Tom Macdonald, Principal West Midlands Construction UTC; Dr Rona Mackenzie, Principal Lincoln UTC; Dermot Carr, Anna Pedroza and Paul Spencer, Baker Dearing Educational Trust. Editorial Team Email: [email protected] Address: Technical Matters Baker Dearing Educational Trust 4 Millbank London SW1P 3JA

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TECHNICAL MATTERS

ISSUE 5 WINTER 2016

UTC News

UTC News News from across the University Technical College network

Exam success across UTCs The summer witnessed thousands of students from across the UK collect their GCSE and post-16 exam results. Among them where many successful UTC students. Lord Baker, Founder of the University Technical Colleges programme said: This year’s results are a testament to the hard work and dedication both students and their teachers have invested. I wholeheartedly congratulate them. We have made really good progress with GCSEs and the outstanding performance of students in technical subjects is particularly pleasing, as BTECs and Cambridge Nationals at all levels are such challenging qualifications.”

Results were particularly strong in engineering and IT, with 80% of engineering entries achieving at least two distinctions compared to the national rate of 40%, and 78% of IT entries achieving at least two distinctions compared to the national rate of 46%. Across all technical qualifications UTC entrants secured a 99% pass rate. Many students in UTCs took A Levels as well as technical qualifications, demonstrating how UTCs combine technical and academic learning. The most popular subjects were maths and physics and nine out of ten entries secured passes. In the midst of the numbers, there were many personal triumphs:

Liverpool Life Sciences UTC student, Shannon Thompson reached great heights when she achieved three A grades in her biology, chemistry and maths A Levels, whilst undergoing chemotherapy for a rare form of cancer. Shannon will be going to study chemistry at Edinburgh University. She plans to work for Cancer Research after completing her degree. She said: I can’t believe it; I am so happy. I wouldn’t have got here without the amazing support of the UTC and my family right the way through my diagnosis. I honestly couldn’t have asked for more.”

“Through their combined technical, academic and practical employer-led learning experiences, the young people who received their results at UTCs this year are well placed to develop exciting careers in essential technical fields in all forms, including engineering and computer science, which are more important than ever.”

Highlights of post-16 exam results: Students at 27 University Technical Colleges took post-16 qualifications in 2016. Of these, 13 UTCs reported results for the first time. Reflecting their technical focus, a large number of students took BTEC Extended Diplomas – equivalent to three A Levels – in science, engineering, IT, computing and maths.

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Shannon Thompson (right) celebrating her three A grades at A level

UTC News

JCB student, Megan Goodfellow, secured a Higher Apprenticeship with Jaguar Land Rover, after achieving an A, B and a C at A level. A delighted Megan had this to say: I’m so happy with my results! JCB Academy has helped start my amazing career at Jaguar Land Rover.”

I want to pursue a career in engineering, working with one of the top railway companies. An apprenticeship seems like a better option because I can get a degree level qualification while earning money, as opposed to building up debt at university.” Results for Bristol Technology and Engineering Academy were above average for the South Gloucestershire region, with 65% of its students achieving A - C grades across English and maths. Results also showed strengths in physics (76% A - C), biology (75% A - C) and engineering (80% Distinction to Pass). Principal, Rhian Priest commented: We are thrilled with our students’ achievements and we are very proud that their hard work has been rewarded.”

Megan Goodfellow shows the exam results which secured a Higher Apprenticeship with Jaguar Land Rover

Highlights of GCSE results UTC Reading, judged as Outstanding by Ofsted in 2014, had a strong set of results, particularly in its specialist subjects, with an overall 98% pass rate at A - C (equivalent) in computer science and engineering. Adam Maddox, UTC Reading student, secured eight passes at A - C, and wants to progress on to an apprenticeship after his post-16 studies. Following his success Adam said:

This year’s results from UTC Sheffield revealed strengths in maths and science. Over 70% of the cohort were awarded A - C grades in both. 97% of students also successfully passed a technical qualification in either engineering or creative digital media, the UTC’s specialist subjects. Alex Reynolds, Principal of UTC Sheffield had this to say: I am extremely proud to see our second full cohort of students complete their Key Stage 4 studies at the UTC.”

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Our success in English, maths and science GCSEs supported by students’ technical experience and qualifications ensures they are prepared for the next stage of their education and careers.” 80% of Year 11 students at Watford UTC achieved their GCSE equivalents in ICT/computing, with over half achieving Merits or Distinctions or the top grade of Distinction Distinction . Other highlights included 94% achieving A - C grades in additional science. Emma Loveland, Principal of Watford UTC, commented: We’re really pleased with all our results. Well done to all the students and staff who have worked so hard to make this happen. We are looking forward to the next part of our journey.” Lincoln UTC, which focuses on science and engineering, celebrated its first set of GCSE results this year. 91% of its cohort achieved A - C in core sciences and an impressive 41% were awarded top grades of A or A in biology. All GCSE students studied three Cambridge Nationals in engineering, achieving a 100% pass rate. Students performed most strongly in the Cambridge National for engineering systems control, where 75% achieved the equivalent of an A - C grade. Dr Rona Mackenzie, Principal of Lincoln UTC said: Our students join us from a wide variety of schools from across the county and with a diverse range of experiences, skills and knowledge.

I am really pleased with my grades, particularly my English language. Two years ago, before joining the UTC, I was predicted to get a D, but I actually got an A. I put it down to the teaching here and the different learning environment. There is a good level of support, and you know what is expected of you, but you also need to take ownership of your studies.”

Our students and staff have worked exceptionally hard during the first two years since the UTC opened. We are delighted and proud to have secured such a great set of results.”

Adam Maddox, UTC Reading

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ISSUE 5 WINTER 2016

UTC News

New term sees 11 new University Technical Colleges open 11 new UTCs opened their doors this September, giving even more young people across the UK the opportunity to study for Level 2 and Level 3 technical qualifications alongside core academic GCSEs and A Levels. There are now 48 UTCs open in England. Through a combination of academic and technical learning, UTC students complete their secondary education with the skills and qualifications they need to get a head start at university, get an apprenticeship or go straight into employment. Every UTC offers one to two technical specialisms designed to meet the needs of local employers. The specialisms of those opening this month include engineering, manufacturing, health sciences, digital media and design and computing. More than 60 employers including Bentley, Skanska, Siemens, Network Rail, Jaguar Land Rover, Rolls-Royce, ARUP, Fujitsu, Classic FM, McCain Foods and GCHQ are backing the new UTCs, along with local universities. They have been working closely with UTC staff to develop innovative curriculums that include workplace projects and experiences

for students as well as traditional classroombased learning. Through these employer and university-led projects, students are able to enhance their professional expertise as well as their practical, technical and academic knowledge. Aidan McManus, Operations Director of Tenet Consultants, sponsors of Scarborough UTC, said:

As someone who gained their engineering qualifications through an apprenticeship programme, I understand the importance of technical training in developing a successful career path.

Sheffield’s second University Technical College has also been completed and students have moved into the new building. Sarah Clark, Principal, UTC Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park campus, said:

I am thrilled to welcome students to our fantastic new building and want to thank everyone who has supported us. The innovative curriculum and facilities have been designed with employers and prepare young people for great careers in the healthcare and sports science, and computing sectors.”

The technical focused curriculum at a UTC, the state of the art equipment and the professional working environment is key to helping students go on to great things. In a competitive job market the industry knowledge and connection with employers helps young people to stand out from their peers.”

Sarah Clarke, Principal of UTC Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park, on the first day students moved into the £10 million new building. Clive Betts MP, for Sheffield South East, commented: It is very encouraging to see the city’s second UTC breathing new life into the area, and providing a legacy for young people and employers, as part of the broader multi-million pound Olympic Legacy Park development.” Global Academy UTC (London)

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UTC News

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New UTCs opened in September: Name of UTC

Technical specialism

South Bank Engineering UTC (London)

Engineering for building and health sectors

UTC South Durham

Advanced Manufacturing | Engineering

London Design and Engineering UTC

Design | Engineering

Crewe Engineering and Design UTC

Engineering | Manufacturing | Design

Greater Peterborough UTC

Engineering | Built environment

UTC Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park

Health sciences (healthcare and sports) | Computing

UTC Warrington

Engineering | Science

WMG Academy for Young Engineers (Solihull)

Engineering | Science

Global Academy UTC (London)

Creative, technical and broadcast and digital media

UTC Leeds

Engineering | Manufacturing

Scarborough UTC

Engineering | Product design

UTC South Durham located in Aycliffe Business Park

Lord Baker, Founder of the University Technical Colleges programme, said: It’s great news that more UTCs are opening this month. Evidence shows that young people who have the opportunity for hands-on learning and work experience are more engaged, can achieve higher grades and have better job prospects. UTCs are unique in providing a rich learning environment for students not only to excel academically, but to develop the employability and life skills which employers are crying out for.”

UTC Warrington located in the heart of the town within the Stadium Quarter

Outstanding outcomes for UTC students UTCs recorded the destinations of 1292 students that left in July 20161 only five were NEET (not in employment, education or training).

• 15% of UTC leavers started a job (up two percentage points from last year)

• 44% of UTC leavers went to University (up two percentage points from 2015)

An impressive 97% of Year 13 students leaving UTCs have stayed in education, started an apprenticeship or started a job. Just five were NEET (0.5%) and the remaining 2.5% planned to take a gap year.

• 29% of UTC leavers started apprenticeships (up five percentage points from 2015)

• 9% stayed in other forms of education such as training at a FE College

Lord Baker said: These results show that UTCs are among the most successful schools in the country. The UTC blend of academic and technical education is a triumphant success. UTCs transform the life opportunities of hundreds of youngsters.”

1 Information is based on data collected in Sept and Oct 2016 from Y13 students who left 25 UTCs in July 2016. Information was received from 1292 students. 34 other students could not be contacted and are not included in these figures.

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James Nicholls – Outstanding BTEC Engineering Student of the Year 2016 When staff at Aston University Engineering Academy (AUEA) heard that James had won the ‘Outstanding BTEC Engineering Student of the Year’ award from Pearson (with £1000 prize!) no one was surprised. James had already demonstrated tremendous resilience following a serious car accident. This resulted in him missing most of Year 12, returning in Year 13 to AUEA to achieve distinctions in his BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Engineering. Since the age of 13, James has been actively involved in the RAF Air Training Corps, whose strong STEM ethos has given him the opportunity to explore a wide range of STEM aspects like radio communication and earning the Duke of Edinburgh Award by volunteering at events such as air shows.

UTC News

In addition to this, he developed his skills further, completing several CNC machining courses, and gaining an accredited laser cutting qualification. This inspired James to set up his own business in laser cutting for bespoke applications using the skills developed through his BTEC course. There was tough competition for the award, but James’s application stood out, especially with his design and build of a fully working Sterling Engine as a solution to provide sustainable energy to his college’s partner school in Sierra Leone. The National BTEC awards ceremony took place at Royal Horticultural Halls after a reception lunch at the House of Commons, where James was presented with this prestigious award. Staff were also delighted that AUEA received a commendation from the Judges of the “School of the Year” category.

Greater Peterborough UTC – Guinness World Record holders before the doors even open! Greater Peterborough UTC (GPUTC) is Peterborough’s newest school, opened in September 2016 specialising in engineering, construction, architecture and design with its first cohort of students already holding a Guinness World Record Breaker title!

Almost everything we use on a daily basis is engineered; from the house you live in, the car you drive, to your water pipes. We want to inspire students to think differently about engineering and see a career with a varied and challenging role.”

Earlier this year, 100 students took time out of their half term holidays to take part in taster sessions run in conjunction with GPUTCs sponsors and partners gaining a taster of life as a GPUTC student.

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Joanne Harper, Principal of UTC Reading and her staff have been

appointed by the government to support schools that are experiencing challenges during the latest student recruitment phase. Ms Harper has been elected as a National Leader of Education (NLE) because of her consistently outstanding performance as a school head. As such, Joanne will help to make improvements in schools where there are difficulties with recruiting students by providing advice, help with leadership and selecting members of her own staff to give additional support where needed. Joanne is one of only 107 other head teachers in the UK to be selected for the role, and UTC Reading is now officially a National Support School (NSS) because of the exemplary standards of its staff and leadership. Ms Harper said:

To top it all off the students also became world record breakers by taking part in building the world’s largest free standing paper structure (at 3.51 metres) a pyramid of paper tubes. The initiative was run by GPUTCs partner – Anglian Water, in an attempt to inspire students to consider a career in engineering. The structure was designed by Anglian Water engineer and STEMNET ambassador Matt Humphrey. He said:

UTC Reading principal and staff are selected to be leaders in education

GPUTC staff and students celebrate world record

I am delighted that UTC Reading has become a part of this excellent initiative. We have a fantastic team of staff at the UTC and I am looking forward to developing our relationships with other schools as we work together to provide the best possible experience for young people in education.”

Article title

ISSUE 5 AUTUMN 2016

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Guest comment: A national system of technical education that works in the marketplace

Guest comment: A national system of technical education that works in the marketplace David Sainsbury, Chairman, Independent Panel on Technical Education Founder of the Gatsby Charitable Trust and Chancellor of the University of Cambridge

If we are to compete in today’s global economy against low-wage countries such as China, industry needs to have a highly-skilled technician workforce. Alongside this economic imperative, many areas of our national life, whether it is hospitals, the armed services, universities or agriculture, today also depend on highly-skilled technicians to operate efficiently. But the simple truth is that we do not have the highly-skilled technician workforce that we need. International comparisons suggest the UK performs relatively well when it comes to graduate-level and higher skills. But at the sub-degree, skilled technician level our performance is appalling. By 2020, the UK is predicted to rank just 28th of 33 OECD countries in terms of developing these intermediatelevel skills. Our own employer surveys also consistently paint a bleak picture. A survey last year by the CBI and Pearson found 47% of construction employers and 37% of manufacturing employers reporting current difficulties in recruiting technicians. Across all sectors, 46% of employers reported suffering or expecting soon to suffer a shortage of technicians. That we now find ourselves in this position is as unsurprising as it is depressing. It is over a hundred years since the first report was produced which highlighted the failures of technical education in the UK, the Samuelson Royal Commission on Technical Instruction which reported in 1882-4, and since the 1940s there have been very many attempts to reform the system. In the last 35 years alone there have been 28 major Acts relating to vocational and further education and skills training in the UK.

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What works in other countries These have all been unsuccessful because they failed to learn from what works in other countries and failed to construct a stable, easy-to-navigate system of technical education that everyone understands, that works in the marketplace, and is flexible enough to respond to a changing economy. As a result of these past failures, at the same time that UK productivity is suffering due to a serious shortage of technicians, over 400,000 16-24 year olds are unemployed. It is hard to believe that none of these young people have the ability and motivation to train as technicians if only given good opportunities to do so. Many UTCs are already blazing a trail for highquality technical education but, alongside innovative institutions, systemic reform is also required. Last year the government asked me to chair a panel of experts to look at how and why our competitors seem to be doing things better than us and how technical education in England could be put on par with the best in the world. Our findings were clear:

successful education systems elsewhere in the world have, as a central feature, a wellunderstood national system of qualifications that works in the labour market. Young people will only work hard to get a qualification, and value it highly when they get it, if employers when recruiting give priority to individuals who possess it. It is only this labour market currency that gives technical courses the prestige they possess in high-performing countries such as Norway, Germany, Netherlands, Singapore and others. Any talk of governments being able to endow technical education with prestige – or parity of esteem with academic options – without first ensuring its genuine currency with employers is nonsense. Experts from industry To achieve such market currency for technical qualifications, employer engagement in course design cannot simply be an afterthought. Instead, while it is the role of government to design the overall

Guest comment: A national system of technical education that works in the marketplace ISSUE 5 WINTER 2016

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national system, it must be experts from industry who determine the knowledge, skills, and methods of assessment, for each qualification. Equally, high-quality work placements must be part of every technical qualification, as they are in other countries, with the government contributing to the cost of these placements for young people in recognition of the critical role they play in developing a range of knowledge and skills that employers value. In industries like engineering, construction, healthcare and finance, the most-skilled nations have clearly defined occupational routes that set out clear technical education standards, resulting in recognised national qualifications. Germany has six main routes for dual apprenticeships with around 320 national training standards. The Netherlands has a total of eight technical routes but is aiming to reduce the number of technical programmes to approximately 170 main qualifications. In comparison, England has no specific routes and a ridiculous 22,140 certificates offered by 160 different awarding organisations. A budding engineer, for example, has a choice of over 400 courses at levels 2 and 3 which are eligible for funding in post-16 institutions – a bewildering prospect for employers and individuals alike.

New set of technical routes Taking all of this evidence into consideration, the panel I chaired recommended that a new set of 15 technical education routes should be introduced in England. These routes will encompass employment-based training (apprenticeships) and college-based training, with both being drawn from a common framework of standards. For 16-18 year olds studying full-time in a college, each route – for example ‘Construction’, ‘Engineering & Manufacturing’, ‘Digital’, or ‘Health & Sciences’ – will typically begin with a two year study programme. Each programme will start with a common core of knowledge and skills, after which individuals will specialise towards an occupation or cluster of aligned occupations. For each of these paths through a route there will be just one publicly-funded ‘Tech Level’ qualification available at each level. Some students may choose to study for an AS or A-level alongside their Tech Level, but the clear design purpose of each Tech Level will be to prepare for entry to skilled employment, either directly or after a period of further education and training.

the marketplace because it delivers the knowledge and skills employers need. UTCs uniquely placed While many students following the new technical education routes will attend FE colleges, within the schools system UTCs are uniquely placed to capitalise on these reforms. With intimate employer engagement and industry-standard facilities already hardwired into the UTC model, I hope many UTCs will be in the vanguard of delivery of the new routes. I am delighted that the government has accepted my panel’s recommendations in full. The proposals we have made are essential if we are to compete effectively in world markets, and operate our public services efficiently. They are also important because they will provide many opportunities for our young people to gain the skills which will enable them to get better paid and more secure jobs. Our report is not only about industrial efficiency but also social mobility.

This clear organising framework will cover all technician-level occupations where there is a substantial requirement for technical knowledge and practical skills.

And, finally, our proposals, I believe, provide an opportunity to reverse a hundred-year failure of our educational system, a prize surely worth fighting to achieve.

It will streamline the system substantially, and allow individuals and employers to see how college-based courses sit alongside apprenticeships as equally valid pathways to skilled employment. Most crucially however, it will give this country – for the first time – a national system of technical qualifications that works in

The report of the Independent Panel on Technical Education, and the government’s response in its Post-16 Skills Plan, are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/ publications/post-16-skills-plan-andindependent-report-on-technical-education

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WISE words at UTC Leeds

WISE words at UTC Leeds Fay Best, Governor UTC Leeds and WISE Associate

Inspiring girls and women to study and build careers using science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) is the work of the national organisation, the WISE Campaign. WISE stands for Women Into Science and Engineering and includes mathematics, technology and the built environment. Fay Best, a governor at the recently opened UTC Leeds, explains how her work as a WISE Associate has helped shape a change in culture at the UTC with the long term aim of attracting and retaining girls and young women in engineering.

what they can do to help them choose and progress in such careers.” TM: Why did WISE become involved with UTCs? In 2013 we realised employers were really looking towards UTCs for their future talent.”

“What we felt at WISE, was that whilst UTCs may not be the largest sector within education, we did feel they were going to be the pipeline for entrants into engineering and STEM careers. This, in our view, was going to be the route through which engineering employers would be choosing their future workforce and if we did not get girls into those areas, employers would be missing out on this talent stream and girls on these rewarding careers.”

TM: Can you begin by explaining the work of WISE? ‘From classroom to boardroom’ is the phrase which captures the aim of WISE with a mission to increase women in STEM education and careers by one million.” “As a national organisation, WISE has been active for 30 years and holds the expertise in gender awareness and engaging girls in STEM. Whilst there has not been a dramatic move forward in the number of girls employed in STEM careers, there has been a steady increase and had WISE not been in existence, I don’t think that would have been the case. We know that there is a lot further to go in engaging girls in STEM and to applying themselves to STEM careers. There are real issues for girls from an early age, which go right the way through to school, that are giving girls the wrong messages about their place in STEM subjects and careers. This is why we work with the government, employers and educators to help them understand why girls are not choosing STEM careers and

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WISE helping to engage girls in STEM careers at UTC Leeds

WISE words at UTC Leeds

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Local TV interviewing UTC Leeds student TM: You mentioned earlier the wrong messages girls were receiving about their place in STEM subjects and careers. In what ways has WISE helped UTCs to challenge these wrong messages? “On a national level I worked with WISE and the Royal Academy of Engineering to develop a guide book1 for UTCs to look at ways they could engage girls by adopting different approaches and considering their marketing and recruitment strategies. Later in 2014, WISE carried out some innovative research led by Professor Averil MacDonald who investigated all the available research on girls and STEM and published the report ‘STEM – Not for people like me?’2.” A key finding from this research highlighted how, from a very early age, girls’ self-identify using adjectives, describing themselves using words such as caring or kind, friendly or supportive.” “If you think of a boy he is more likely to self-identify using verbs, describing themselves by being able to do something such as a good footballer or being able to run fast. Girls, however, use a very different language based on adjectives and if we describe engineering roles in terms of verbs, the boys will self-identify with the roles, but the girls will not. The report also highlighted research by the Science Council who identified ten types of scientist such as explorer, investigator or communicator, these types of scientists are also different types of people. Using this research, we can ask girls to describe the type of people they are using adjectives and highlight how

their own self-identity can draw them towards roles within STEM careers.”

TM: You have described strategies to attract female students to UTC Leeds, what are you doing to support them once they arrive?

TM: How have the findings from this research been applied to UTC Leeds?

“Supported by Leeds City Council, we are looking to establish a WISE Leeds hub to which all female students at the local University, FE Colleges and UTC Leeds, will be invited to meet women in STEM careers and take part in a variety of events.”

“We put this research into effect when we changed the first draft of the UTC Leeds prospectus from using ‘Do you want to be an engineer?’ and ‘Do you like making things?’ to ‘Engaging with the future’, ‘Do you want to make an impact on your community?’ and ‘Do you like working as part of a team?’. Immediately you gain a different perspective to which girls can relate. We have followed the same approach with employer-led projects. For example, Agfa, one of our sponsors, provided a project in which they asked our students to look at ways of capturing the heat generated in a chemical process. It was written in a traditional, verb driven way for ‘doers’. Working with Agfa, we took this project and re-wrote it emphasising the wider environmental impact of excess heat and the long term value of capturing the heat generated and its possible use within the community. It was the same project but now one in which girls are more likely to identify and engage.” “The use of language is not the only means to break down barriers for girls and STEM careers. The images we use at UTC Leeds are also crucial, as are the positive role models we promote for young women and who are from the same background and cultural upbringing as those we wish to either attract or support as UTC students.”

This will help to support, engage and build the confidence of these young women as it is equally important that once the young women arrive at the UTC we are able to retain them.” “This means looking at every aspect including opportunities to socialise, mentoring, travel arrangements to and from the UTC, the facilities for girls, the curriculum, ensuring that they are comfortable with the uniform and that they feel safe and secure in what they are doing and see a future for themselves in engineering.” Fay’s passion for ensuring girls access the excellent opportunities UTCs provide shines through. She recognises STEM employers are seeking to recruit from UTCs and if girls are not taking advantage of the UTC offer on an equal basis with boys then the gender balance will not only not improve, it is likely to worsen. Fay clearly believes it is critical that UTCs take action. If you are interested in knowing more how WISE can support the recruitment and retention of girls, you can contact Fay at: [email protected]

1 University Technical Colleges: Opening up new opportunities for girls, (2014). 2 ‘Not for people like me?’: Under represented groups in science, technology and engineering, (2014). Available to download from WISE at http://bit.ly/29GAHgt

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A tale of two institutions

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TECHNICAL MATTERS

A tale of two institutions Bridging the gap between schools and higher education Professor David Hornby, University of Sheffield

Between 2013 and 2015, Professor Dave Hornby was seconded from his academic post in Molecular Life Sciences at the University of Sheffield, to help establish the Innovation Laboratory at the Liverpool Life Sciences UTC. Here he tells his personal story and shares his enthusiasm for the opportunities created by the UTC movement for students with a broad range of academic and vocational aspirations. It was late 2012 when an old friend, Dr Geoff Wainwright, co-founder of the Technology Transfer organisation 2 Bio, persuaded me that it might be interesting to meet with Nigel Ward, the driving force behind the North Liverpool Academy,

a visionary new school in Liverpool’s world famous footballing heartland. After a few hours of conversation with Nigel, I left having agreed to get involved with a new project which would create a different type of school. It would be located in what I like to think of as Liverpool’s “Greenwich Village”; otherwise known as the Baltic Triangle, recalling the city’s seafaring legacy. Over the next three years the Life Sciences UTC became fully operational recruiting its first student cohort at Year 10 and Year 12, in September of 2013. Six months earlier, and throughout the first year, there were challenges of logistics, partnering with industry, curriculum development and importantly the recruitment of teachers and students, making the educational start-up enterprise not only educationally fit-for-purpose, but financially robust and sustainable.

My job was to try and animate the ground floor of a beautifully refurbished late Victorian warehouse with Science; adding value to the GCSE, A level and BTech programmes under way on the upper floors. Making it REAL With the Ofsted “sword of Damocles” hanging over the UTC from the day the doors opened, the challenge for me was to understand the culture of schools and teachers, and to attempt to develop a programme of laboratory activities that would add value to the curriculum classes. My over-arching aim was to make science both engaging and challenging, for both students and staff, whilst addressing many of the well-publicised concerns of employers and university academics

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about the decline in the quality of school leavers. As some might say: ‘No pressure there!’ The great US educational reformer and social democrat, John Dewey provided my conceptual starting point, fuelled by a series of thought provoking meetings with scientists and managers from the Royal Liverpool University Hospital laboratory services and the Merseyside Life Sciences sector. My own research labs in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at Sheffield, provided the template for the UTC labs. As the students would follow the national curriculum for most of the week, I would have typically one day to work with each year group. The programme I developed, I referred to as Research Enhanced Active Learning (REAL). Through a series of challenging experimental classes, scientific concepts would be introduced and investigated, providing the students with a deeper and lasting understanding of several fundamental aspects of chemistry, biology, physics and maths. The whole programme was made possible following a series of induction classes, where students would be trained in the use of contemporary laboratory equipment, made possible through the initial start-up investment in the new Innovation Lab within the UTC and the generosity of a number of industrial partners. The induction programme is now assessed and is referred to as the UTC skills passport, where students achieve silver, gold or platinum through a series of increasing levels of technical challenge. I should point out that although the UTC Labs are well appointed and equipped, the experiments we perform there are very low cost.

A tale of two institutions

in the form of scientific posters, through individual and group presentations and with a constant stream of lab visitors from politicians, CEOs to eminent scientists including Nobel Laureates, they learn to feel confident about talking science! As the honeymoon year came to an end, and the prospect of a full roll began to appear on the horizon, the luxury of teaching only Year 10 and Year 12 would soon turn into a more significant challenge. In addition, we had committed to recruiting an Innovation Lab lead teacher, who would overlap with me and then pick up the baton alone for the 2015 entry. Dr John Dyer arrived over the summer of 2014, and through John’s influence the lab sessions became more structured and assessment more formalised. I think this was critical in ensuring we were able to demonstrate the value of the extra-curricular programmes to an Ofsted inspector. Complimentary and supportive The comments we received from visitors and partners were always complimentary

and supportive which became apparent during meetings between Ofsted and our partners. UTCs however, stand and fall by the same criteria as any other school in the country. Parents who are satisfied that the UTC is the right choice for their own children, need to know their education is not at risk, and Ofsted are there to make sure that everything is in order. The value of the extra-curricular programmes at UTCs will in my view only emerge fully over the next ten years. After all, a new UTC is a start-up school and very few teachers and governing bodies have experience of managing a successful, new educational establishment. Whilst I may wholeheartedly embrace the UTC concept, like any new Tech sector the success of a set of new ventures is dependent on the experience of the team as much as the product on sale! This will undoubtedly be the case with the growth in the UTC sector. Some partnerships will be hard wired, but business, public sector and HE partnerships will require regular maintenance.

Confident talking science A typical REAL session begins with the students, working in small teams drafting a plan for the experimental challenge. It might be an experimental demonstration of the Beer Lambert Law, it could be the extraction of antimicrobials from plants, or the use of ion exchange chromatography to separate proteins from biological fluids… or the establishment of an insect colony in order to explore animal life cycles through traditional experimental Biology and more and contemporary Genomics and Bioinformatics approaches. Alongside these lofty experiences, students must develop simple numerical skills, analysing data both on paper and through the use of open source software. Students from Year 10 to Year 13 are encouraged to communicate their results in written reports,

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Confident talking science

Professor Hornby with local primary school children

A tale of two institutions

Essential UTC-HE partnership The REAL programme at the UTC is now into its fourth year, and has evolved as new teachers have joined the school and as others have moved on. The relationship with the HE sector, in addition to the generous support from the University of Liverpool in the form of student bursaries and placements and visits, is one that requires constant attention and revision. The UTC-HE partnership is a key part of all agreements to award UTC funding at the outset. In view of the diversity in themes and the associated cultural differences as between life science sectors, the automotive industries or the world of film and media, I feel such relationships needs careful management. Institutional agreements are essential at the outset, but a second phase of close collaboration is critical for realising the full potential of the UTC model. Moreover the creation of professional career routes for UTC and university graduates needs as much political and industrial commitment as the national housing programme!

I would urge all University academics to consider working closely with the student groups in UTCs in order to develop a new approach to research. As university research funding becomes more thinly spread and the human resources for carrying out hands-on experimental work becomes increasingly difficult, UTCs offer high quality research environments and facilities, through substantial investment from the DfE and regional partners. This is not a call for some form of cheap labour, but rather to acknowledge that contemporary research incorporates public science, crowd-sourcing and often very large data collection. Simple, well planned experiments can provide a rich experience for school students and valuable preliminary research data for university and industry research programmes. The opportunity to incorporate such collaborations into impact statements for the research and teaching excellence frameworks seem pretty clear to me!

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Acknowledgement Thanks to the following individuals for introducing me to UTCs: Dr Geoff Wainwright CEO of 2Bio and a member of the Board of Governors at Liverpool Life Sciences UTC Nigel Ward CEO of the Northern Schools Trust and Chair of Governors at Liverpool Life Sciences UTC Colleagues at the University of Sheffield The Senior Management Team and teachers at Liverpool Life Sciences UTC The students in the Greenland Biodesign team at Liverpool Life Sciences UTC Staff at the University of Liverpool, especially the manager of the teaching laboratories, Geoff Dickinson Staff at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine Academic colleagues from around the world who have given their time and support in developing the REAL programme and skills passport Most importantly those students who have astonished me with their casual conversations on topics ranging from Stem Cell Biology to Particle Physics: they have changed my life!

Further reading Most of the experiences that I have tried to condense here appear on the Life Sciences Innovation Lab Blog site (http://utcinnovationlabs.blogspot. co.uk/) and I continue to provide scientific support and comments on science and education through a number of Blog sites, all of which can be accessed from http://bit.ly/2dp66r3

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Jaguar Land Rover and UTCs – a premium partnership

Jaguar Land Rover and UTCs – a premium partnership José Lopes, Head of Technical Excellence, Jaguar Land Rover

As the chair of the governing body at WMG Academy for Young Engineers in Coventry, José demonstrates the commitment of Jaguar Land Rover, the UK’s largest automotive manufacturing business, to the continuing growth and development of UTCs. Technical Matters caught up with José to find out what lies behind the support from this premier automotive brand. TM: Your role at JLR is Head of Technical Excellence. Can you describe what that involves? “My role covers three different pillars. Firstly, what is termed the Jaguar Land Rover Academy, which primarily is lifelong learning within the business, looking at how we develop our engineers and technicians with new skills and honing those skills which are needed for the business both today and in the future. This involves supporting a number of programmes within the Academy, in particular our Technical Accreditation Scheme, which is our Masters degree programme for our engineers, enabling them to study modules from a number of our partner universities. Secondly, my role broadly involves how the business interacts with stakeholders such as engineering institutions and the government and how we articulate the skills required by high value manufacturing and in particular the automotive industry. This means I chair the Automotive Industrial Partnership, a skills group for the automotive industry in the UK. And finally, I look at partnerships, with universities and schools which is where University Technical Colleges come in and how such partnerships can support our skills requirement.”

TM: That leads into my next question. What caught JLR’s interest in the beginning to support UTCs? The UTC movement clearly plays very well into the needs of the likes of Jaguar Land Rover, our need for a broad as well as deep engineering and technical skill, so it was an obvious link up to look at the whole pipeline of how people are educated in the UK.” “We obviously have interactions with many schools, we have education partnership centres in all our plants which interact annually with some 300,000 young people through many different types of programmes such as those linked to STEM – so UTCs are a natural extension – to look at a school which is primarily focused on delivering engineering

technical skills and business links, which is very important to us.” TM: Do you therefore see this as distinctive to UTCs which makes them different to traditional schools and colleges? I think the distinctiveness is the business focus, business led type of approach where the UTCs and industry can work collaboratively together to look at destinations.” “For us, schools should not only be about gaining qualifications but also the skills and behaviours required to move into a future career – for me and my colleagues it’s about this destination, the way UTCs can bring young people into, for example, apprenticeships and other roles at the end of their studies.”

Architects impression of the recently opened WMG Academy, Solihull

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Jaguar Land Rover and UTCs – a premium partnership

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TECHNICAL MATTERS

Students have access to state of the art facilities at WMG Academy, Solihull TM: What are the practical ways in which JLR supports UTCs? “I’m chair of the Governing body at WMG Academy for Young Engineers in Coventry. Colleagues come into the WMG Academy and lead on a number of curriculum projects. Some come in to do impromptu talks or support curriculum development. There are interactions between our graduate apprentices and students in the UTC again with the intention of demonstrating to the students the destinations possible in a company such as ours.” TM: Broadening out a little, recent figures from the Joint Council for Qualifications are continuing to show a fall in the uptake in creative, artistic and technical GCSEs. Should this be a concern? “I think one has to take a balanced view of this. The creative and art based subjects are very, very important if you are an engineer. Obviously in the automotive sector, the aesthetics, the arts, the creative side is an extremely important part of what makes a car, and, as an engineer, you need to be able to apply your engineering knowledge to a creative form. It enhances your ability as an engineer if you are

creative. So it should be concerning, but there should be a balance because I think over time there has also been pressure on engineering, physics and maths with numbers dwindling, so I do feel a balance needs to be struck.” TM: Encouraging girls to study STEM subjects and enter STEM careers continues to be a challenge. From your perspective, what more could be done to encourage girls to study STEM subjects and consider careers in engineering and related fields? Depending upon how you look at the data, it continues to be a national scandal that only between 6% to 9% of women are in engineering.” “There are a number of things that can be done to broaden the appeal of what engineering is, including showing how it is a blend of the creative and the technical. For example, Jaguar Land Rover together with a few other large employers are working with the Royal Academy of Engineering on the Engineering Talent

Project which is to re-evaluate and enhance the media perception of engineering. There needs to be concerted effort to address misperceptions and to show, as far as the engineering profession is concerned, it is gender neutral and we can then begin to attract more women into the profession.” TM: What message would you give to employers who are considering becoming involved with a UTC? “Having been involved with the UTC movement for nearly four years, since the inception of the WMG Academy for Young Engineers and now with the opening of the new WMG Academy at Solihull, I think it is a huge opportunity to put back into education the sort of passion for innovation which exists within many companies, especially in small to medium size enterprises (SMEs). “In my experience, many of the companies involved with the UTC are SMEs, which have been able to recruit a huge amount of talent directly from the UTC by offering apprenticeship and other destinations. I think if companies look at what is achievable when working with a UTC they would be very excited.”

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Enduring commitment

Enduring commitment

Andy Cree, Captain Royal Navy, UTC Team Leader

The Royal Navy’s (RN) affiliation team has kept a very busy programme of visits to all its affiliated UTCs and is now well under way in developing and delivering contextualised projects, tailored to support each UTC key specialism. The team are committed to delivering challenging projects which assist with the development of technical skills in line with supporting the core vocational curriculum. For each affiliated UTC, there are now projects for Year 10-11 and Year 12-13 during this academic year. Students will be given an engineering problem which will require them to plan, design and manufacture a solution working in small project teams.

summer with team places available to be advertised soon – watch this space! Finally, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank those who are moving on from the team and introduce to you the new members of the affiliations team whom you will undoubtedly meet over the coming months. Lt Cdr Matt Clarke is moving on, having joined the team in January 2015 and Colour Sargeant Andy ‘Clem’ Cleminson has moved on to pastures new outside of the RN. My best wishes to both as they embark on their new ventures and a warm welcome to the new joiners below: UTC Affiliations ‘Meet the Team’ Lt Jamie Weller RN joined the Royal Navy in 2005 as a Weapon Engineering Officer (WEO) and served as the Deputy WEO on

Projects launched at the start of this term include manufacturing a toolbox for Year 10 students and designing a recovery system for the F35 Lightning in the event of an emergency landing developed to challenge Year 12 students. In addition to the implementation of the projects the affiliation team has also recruited a Personal Development Instructor who will be responsible for delivering leadership training, team building activities and adventurous training to consolidate the academic programme of engagement with our formally affiliated UTCs. Future activities The engagement with both our affiliated UTCs and other UTCs continues to expand and strengthen. The visit weeks to Portsmouth for our affiliates take place in November with demand high for places, Operation ‘Amphibious Angel’ is planned for March 2017 and the Junior Leaders Field Gun will once again be open to UTCs next

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Lt Jamie Weller RN

HMS Liverpool, deployed on operations across the Atlantic Ocean. Since leaving the Ship he has worked in a range of jobs from Captain Naval Recruitment, where he specialised in engineering officer recruitment, before taking up a position in Defence Equipment and Support, Bristol, as the In Service Manager for Capital Ships and Mine Hunter class vessels. His most recent role was in the Royal Navy’s strategic communications and engagement team. Lt Weller joins the UTC team as the affiliations officer and is looking forward to getting involved in the UTC projects across the country. A keen sportsman, he is currently the Chairman for British Schools and Royal Navy Gymnastics Associations. His claim to fame was carrying both the Union and Olympic flag during the opening ceremony of London 2012.

Enduring commitment

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TECHNICAL MATTERS

Chief Petty Officer Andy Hampson served in the Fleet Air Arm for 28 years and has recently returned to the RN after eight years working for Virgin Atlantic as an Engineering Training Officer. He has now joined the RN University Technical Colleges (UTC) affiliations team on Full Time Reserve Service. Since joining he has visited five affiliated UTCs in England, meeting the college staff and discussed and planned delivery of RN contextualised engineering projects. Recent events he has supported include: HMS Collingwood open day, The Ageas Bowl STEM event, QinetiQ open evening, Noel Turner Physics Festival, UTC Plymouth sports day, Lympstone endurance course with UTC Plymouth students and a sailing week with students at UKSA Cowes.

Chief Petty Officer Mark Lewis (Lew) joined the UTC University Technical Colleges (UTC) affiliations team in April. He spent 22 years in the RN as a Marine Engineering Artificer during which time he worked on mechanical systems maintaining refrigeration, air conditioning, pressurised air systems, water making and fire-fighting equipment. On leaving the RN he followed up his passion for training becoming a qualified mathematics teacher at a local secondary school. His hobbies include sailing and tinkering with his modified classic Morris Minor. He returned to the service environment instructing Fuels, Gas Turbines and Outboards at HMS Sultan. Now back in the RN as a Full Time Reservist he is looking forward to engaging with UTCs to deliver the RN projects.

Warrant Officer First Class Stuart Clayton is the newest member of the UTC team who will be joining in early November. As a professional Meteorologist he has served on a number of Ships and Air Stations, the last of which was in the USA where he was supporting USAF and RAF Squadrons operating Predator and Reaper Remotely Piloted Air Systems (RPAS) in Afghanistan and Iraq. During a career spanning nearly 30 years he has also been a Leadership Instructor (twice) at the Royal Navy’s Leadership Academy and the Hydrography, Meteorology and Oceanography (HM for short) Ratings Training Officer at FOST HM with a responsibility for all aspects of HM Ratings professional training. As a British Canoe Union Sea Kayak Leader and Coach he can frequently be seen paddling around the Solent and is always looking to extol the virtues of water based activities as a method of developing ‘Sea Sense’. He loves learning new things (the latest was MIG welding at Chichester College) and as such he is keen to meet UTC students and discover what they will teach him!

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A practical guide to craftsmanship: Creating the craftsmen and women that Britain needs

A practical guide to craftsmanship:

Creating the craftsmen and women that Britain needs Bill Lucas and Ellen Spencer. Reviewed by Professor Tim Cain, Director of SCATE, Edge Hill University

Readers of Technical Matters may recall the first issue in which Tom Macdonald, Principal of West Midlands Construction UTC, reviewed the report ‘Bodies of Knowledge’ commissioned by Edge Foundation in 2010 and authored by Guy Claxton, Bill Lucas and Rob Webster of the Centre for Real-World Learning, University of Winchester. In the report they explored a working model for real world learning. Drawing on research, they described the habits and frames of mind used by successful learners in all fields.

This proved to be an influential report with the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) subsequently commissioning the Centre for Real-World Learning to investigate the habits of mind of engineers and develop an agreed set of thinking characteristics, skills and attributes of engineers. The result of this investigation was the report ‘Thinking like an engineer – Implications for the education system’ published in 2014 by the RAEng. The recommendations of this report are being implemented by UTCs involved in a national pilot project to explore strategies to embed its findings in their curriculum. The results from this national pilot will be reported in future editions of Technical Matters.

In this brief report, commissioned by City and Guilds, Bill Lucas and Ellen Spencer, draw on their previous research to revitalise the idea of ‘craftsmanship’. In the forward, Kirstie Donnelly, MD of City and Guilds UK recognises such words as ‘craftsman’ or ‘craftsmanship’ come with pre-conceived ideas not least those linked to whether the more inclusive ‘person’ should be used and this is explored in the research. However, Lucas and Spencer describe craftsmanship as,

… an aspiration for excellence and pride in a job well done … beyond technical proficiency … a set of attitudes that makes the learner both self-sufficient and constantly striving.”

They quote Atkinson et al (2013) to the effect that craftsmanship involves, ‘a feeling for the materials, a sense of interpretation, or a sense of “style”’ (p. 499) and they argue that craftsmen develop a mindset and a set of qualities that enable them to improve their skills and become expert through practice. The report names some of the reasons why craftsmanship became undervalued in the recent past but it notes that the UK has ‘craftspeople of the very highest calibre’ and that, along with the resurgence of interest in apprenticeships, there is a growing need for skilled craftsmen and women around the world. The authors identify three important strands of craftsmanship: it is ‘learnable’, it is ‘about becoming’ and it is ‘about the culture’. They illustrate these strands through an analysis of in-depth interviews with Sir Bill Moorcroft of Trafford College and Jason Holt, who founded Holts Academy of Jewellery. They draw out key aspects from the

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A practical guide to craftsmanship: Creating the craftsmen and women that Britain needs

interviews including the notion that teachers should get out of college and learn alongside the best craftspeople in the industry; and that immersion in a close team is important for learning to be a craftsman. The bulk of the report is given over to discussing pedagogy. The authors list some of the challenges in on-the-job learning (such as peer pressure for learners not to appear too ‘pedantic’) and in college learning (such as the availability of teachers with current, relevant, industrystandard experience) and argue that a cohesive approach is needed to meet these challenges. They discuss what they call the ‘signature dispositions’ that each type of skill calls for, and illustrate these dispositions with a case from schoolbased art studios. Drawing on research by Hetland et al. (2007), they characterise the dispositions needed to be a craftsman as,

approach to risk, and persisting in the face of difficulties. The final technique is worth quoting in detail because it contains so many useful maxims: • Settle for nothing less than excellence. • Believe in your own ability to get better through practice. • Believe that your students are capable of excellence. • Attend refresher courses for the skills you do have and improve or update your skills.

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• Learn something new and expand your repertoire. • Develop whatever links you have with industry and make new ones. All in all, the report is well worth the effort of obtaining, reading and discussing with colleagues. The various techniques for teaching craftsmanship are unpacked and described in sufficient detail for teachers to be able to relate them to their own practice. The report is readable and contains sufficient substance to stimulate useful discussion.

developing technique; persisting; envisioning; expressing; observing; reflecting; risk-taking; understanding the domain.” They move on to a discussion of the techniques that teachers can use, grouping these under the three strands, mentioned previously. For example, the ‘learnable’ strand includes focusing on effort, engaging students with the language they use, communicating optimism, directing students to observe intentionally for fine detail, encourage them to take a measured

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A new Baccalaureate

A new Baccalaureate

Olly Newton, Director of Policy and Research, Edge Foundation

Technical Matters invited Olly Newton, Director of Policy and Research at Edge Foundation to provide a summary of the recent paper from Lord Baker in which he makes the case for a broad and balanced baccalaureate. The current English Baccalaureate (Ebacc) and its narrow academic curriculum is a cause of concern across the UTC movement and for parents, teachers, employers and organisations committed to a curriculum which offers parity to technical and creative subjects. Lord Baker, Chairman of Edge Foundation, sets out compelling international, historical and economic evidence to support the creation of a broad baccalaureate incorporating creative and technical education and recognising the achievements of all young people. In, ‘14-19 Education: A new Baccalaureate’, he says:

There is a correlation between affluence and academic success. I wish it were not so, but wishful thinking will not solve the problems of deprivation, and nor will the EBacc, in its current form. Our workforce needs a new set of skills, including expertise in emerging technologies. This narrow academic curriculum is regressive and will severely limit learning of the technical and creative subjects we desperately need in our new digital age.”

UTC students use cutting edge science and engineering equipment

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A new Baccalaureate

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TECHNICAL MATTERS

The key facts and proposals contained in the report cover: The government is proposing that 90% of 14-16 year olds take the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), currently defined with a narrow academic focus on English literature, English language, maths, at least two sciences, a foreign language and either history or geography. This is an old fashioned curriculum, almost identical to regulations introduced in 1904. Even these allowed for part-time technical education from the age of 12. The value of technical and vocational education has never been in doubt in our continental competitors and is growing in importance in areas like New York and Canada. We are going in the opposite direction. The government’s main argument for the narrow EBacc is ‘to ensure that all young people take the combination of GCSEs that are taken by young people in the most privileged schools’. It is simply not the case that if something works for the most privileged it works for all. On average, young people take 8.1 GCSEs (5.8 for lower attainers). EBacc will become the whole curriculum for many young people with little space for any wider creative or technical education. The EBacc measure has already encouraged a 10% drop in Design and Technology entries in the last year.

Based on 2015 data, 225,000 more young people will need to drop a subject to take up a foreign language – yet less than one in ten who take a language GCSE continues to A-Level. Focusing on a narrow set of subjects automatically devalues others and sends a signal that bright, capable young people should actively avoid technical and creative subjects – the very ones that help them develop the skills that employers will need in the future. We must broaden the definition of EBacc, offering a solid academic core alongside creative and technical subjects, supporting the government’s own Progress-8 school performance measure more effectively and driving forward social mobility. Then in time we must remove the artificial divide at 16 between academic and technical education, just as we already do in University Technical Colleges. An overarching award, combining GCSEs, A-Levels and technical qualifications, should become the new measure of success at the end of a unified 14-19 phase of education. This will ensure that we value the talents of all young people and help them develop the skills and behaviour required for the workforce in the age of digital revolution.

Edge Foundation proposals for a new Baccalaureate fit for the 21st century 1904

2016 Ebacc

A 21st century EBacc

English

2 x English

English

Maths

Maths

Maths

Foreign language

Foreign language

A humanities GCSE including history, geography, RE and foreign languages

Science

2 x science

2 x science GCSEs – one of which could be computer science

History

History or geography

A creative GCSE including art and design, music, dance, drama

Drawing

A design & technology GCSE or an approved technical award; eg. Certificate in Engineering or BTEC in Construction and the Built Environment

Commenting on Edge’s proposals, Chair of the Working Group for 14-19 Reform, Sir Mike Tomlinson, said: These proposals deserve to be taken very seriously if we are to have an education system which truly caters for all students whatever their talents. Such a system must recognise that a good education is more than just a collection of qualifications. It is a springboard for all young people to take their place with confidence in an ever-changing employment scene. If this is to happen, then a high quality technical education has to be available as part of a baccalaureate structure which recognises all aspects of a good, rounded education.” 14-19 Education: A New Baccalaureate and many other Edge Foundation reports are available to download free of charge from www.edge.co.uk/research

Students produce a radio show at the BRIT school, Croyden

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Staff profiles

Staff profiles Regular feature celebrating UTC staff

Susan Smith Teacher of Science, UTC Oxfordshire Soozy, as Susan Smith likes to be called, has a passion for communicating the wonders of the scientific world. Before joining UTC Oxfordshire as a science teacher, she balanced the demands of raising her young family with the setting up of a weekly science club for parents and pre-school children called ‘Curiositots’, and a monthly ‘Sunday Science Club’ for young children, which she describes as great fun. If that wasn’t enough, Soozy also volunteered for the NCT and Potential Plus UK. Technical Matters caught up with her to find out more. I graduated from the University of Birmingham with a degree in Biochemistry with Biotechnology, but largely my degree taught me that I wasn’t cut out for lab work so I did a graduate training programme as an analyst programmer with a major supermarket chain. I spent seven years programming financial systems before getting a bit restless and retraining as a teacher.  I trained in London at the Institute of Education, as a general science teacher specialising in chemistry.  I then spent a few years at an outstanding school in Hertfordshire before taking some time off to have children.”

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It was when looking at a school for her son that Soozy first came across the UTC, as she explains: “I was planning on going back to work when my youngest started school full time, but had decided not to go back into teaching as the work/life balance isn’t all that family friendly and seemed to have somehow managed to get worse in my five years away. In early 2015 there was a lot of talk amongst mums of older children about the new school being built and I had a look to see if it was something to think about in the future for my son. I then saw they were recruiting new staff and I thought it sounded interesting enough to find out more and apply. Several things sold it to me at the interview. The first was the student tour of UTC Reading – they were very proud of their school but also seemed very mature in their attitude. The second was the enthusiasm and warmth from Owain Johns, our Principal, and Glen Young, Head of Science. And the last was the chance to do something a bit different.” Soozy then spoke enthusiastically about the opportunities teaching at a UTC offered: “Being part of a new school is very exciting as all staff are able to influence how the school runs rather than having to fight against the inertia of systems that have been in place for a long time. The relationships between staff and students also make it easier to try new approaches in teaching. For instance, my Year 13 chemists are a small class, all with very different learning styles so we discussed how we wanted to cover the material this year and agreed between me and the class that we’d try a flipped classroom approach.

Obviously this means they need to have made sure they’ve covered the content before turning up to the lesson so needed a buy-in from everyone in the class. The use of technology is also great – being able to put information, links and worksheets on OneNote and have students access them through their laptops makes differentiation much easier and less obvious within a classroom. And my love of work with younger children means I’m taking over the primary liaison role this year.” Soozy compared the ‘can do’ approach of her voluntary work to what she experiences with staff at the UTC: The reason why I’ve done so much voluntary work is that I tend to see things that need doing and get on with it. Which is the attitude of all the staff here – everybody is willing to chip in and help out when necessary. Carrying on doing things while being a full time mum did teach me that it’s sometimes necessary to say ‘no, I can’t do that’, which is a lesson I try to put into practice occasionally!”

Staff profiles

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TECHNICAL MATTERS

Amy Broom Director of STEM, Medway UTC Cambridge graduate Amy Broom is one of many high quality teachers being attracted to the new way of teaching and learning at UTCs. As Director of STEM at the newly opened Medway UTC, Amy is drawing on her industrial background and teaching experience to lead the way in promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics amongst her students. Amy met up with Technical Matters to talk about her background and what drew her to Medway UTC. After my A levels, I gained a place at the University of Cambridge where I studied civil and structural engineering, gaining a Masters in Engineering degree. From there I was awarded a scholarship from the Institute of Civil Engineering, spending a year with Atkins, one of the world’s most respected civil engineering consultancies. This led to working for Atkins for four years on projects as diverse as maintenance of highways in the north west of England to the design of metro stations in Dubai. It was after this I entered teaching in a girls’ school in Kent. Before I joined Medway UTC, I had been Head of Physics at a new build academy in South East London.”

Amy thought further on the opportunities being provided to her which may not have been possible at a traditional school or college. “I think most importantly, meeting and working with a network of like-minded teachers who are passionate about education that provides students with skills to become lifelong learners. Cultivating students who engage with the world around them, and are ultimately employable young people who contribute to society. The feature which is the most different to other schools is how closely we work with employers, who bring their expertise to enrich the curriculum and support teaching, but also the challenge of bridging the gap and making the work they do accessible and inspiring for our students.” Although early in Amy’s career at the Medway UTC, she is already making a difference and explains how:

“Throughout my teaching career I have had a personal interest in developing thinking skills and a growth-mindset in young people, through my own teaching and crosscurricular initiatives. As Director of STEM I am in the fortunate position where I can take a lead on embedding these themes across the school. One such project is the Engineering Habits of Mind which has come from ‘Thinking Like an Engineer’, a recent report by the Royal Academy of Engineering. This is an approach we adopt to give a specific focus to develop our students into Engineers of the future. I am also excited by the success we are having with our partner projects, such as the Level 2 BTEC Unit 2 project where students learn about an injector made by partner company Delphi, that reduces emissions from diesel vehicles. An area we are developing this year is a bespoke work experience programme that is student focused and coherent with developing employability.”

With such a background of outstanding achievement, Amy would be an asset to any school. Why then did she choose to join Medway UTC? “It was because of all the opportunities available. For example, to be able to provide a more engaging and relevant educational route for students interested in Engineering and Construction. To share my experiences of being a female in the engineering industry. Helping to cultivate a work-place mind set and develop high level employability skills in young people. To work with industry partners to develop a curriculum that is aimed towards preparing the next generation to fill the skills shortage in STEM industries… to name just a few!”

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Student profiles

Student profiles Regular feature celebrating UTC students

Tiffany Cox Year 12 student, UTC Oxfordshire Twists and turns Tiffany is one of the first group of students recruited to UTC Oxfordshire, a new UTC that celebrated its official opening earlier this year with physicist and television presenter Professor Brian Cox. Having experienced two other colleges, Tiffany describes how, after discovering her interest in engineering, she realised UTC Oxfordshire was the place where she would achieve her career ambitions. Before I joined the UTC, I had been studying at various colleges after leaving my secondary sports specialist school, where my studies had been based on sport and later on Art and Health and Social. At my first college, I began studying an extended diploma in Art and Design. It was here I had a task which involved making a chair out of plywood. In order to complete the task, we had to co-operate and team up with a group of engineering students at the college. Doing this task was what led me to want to study engineering and I decided to enrol at another college to do an extended diploma in advanced engineering. Several weeks later I found out about the UTC and had seen this could be a great opportunity for me to get the working life me for the future.”

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Spot the difference Settled into her studies at the UTC, Tiffany reflected on the differences between her first two colleges and where she is now: “It has been quite a journey for me since the time I left my school to the time I joined the UTC. I have learned and seen the differences between each. The UTC has been different to all my previous colleges and schools because they prepare students for working life. The UTC is visited by many businesses through employer projects where they set real work-based tasks and challenges. The close contact and support from companies means we will be well placed for apprenticeships within the engineering industry.”

The apprenticeship route is the one Tiffany wishes to follow and she describes how staff at UTC Oxfordshire are helping her to achieve that ambition: Studying at the UTC has led me to wanting to do an apprenticeship. Because of the close contact with employers, they have come to show their apprenticeship schemes and provided information on how to take the apprenticeship route. The UTC have supported me in improving my mathematics knowledge. With help and support from staff I have gone from Maths foundation level to sitting for AS Maths this year.”

Student profiles

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TECHNICAL MATTERS

Doug Jones Alumnus Wigan UTC From Cornwall to Wigan Douglas Jones has just completed his final year at Wigan UTC. As a result of his studies there, he has achieved the top grade of D D D for his Extended Diploma in engineering, acquired an NVQ qualification in German, passed his maths AS Level, and has secured the Higher Level Apprenticeship he wanted with United Utilities. On finishing his apprenticeship, Doug hopes to get a permanent job with the organisation and progress to managerial level, an aspiration that he would not have dreamed of before moving to his UTC. Here is Doug’s UTC journey and how it helped him shape his future career path: Why Wigan? Doug always knew he wanted to be an engineer, but living in Cornwall and a student at a large community college where he was unable to focus on his

special interest, made him look for another place to study his A Levels. I had always been really interested in engineering and had passed by Wigan UTC when I used to travel up from Cornwall to visit my Dad who lives there. Wigan is an industrial city and I felt that being immersed in that environment and studying at a school where I could specialise in the subject area I most enjoy would help me build the right skills for a future job in engineering.” On attending an open day, Doug was attracted to the UTC’s state of the art learning facilities, which included large engineering workshops and the latest equipment. He also liked that the dress code and hours mimicked those of a professional working environment, rather than a school:

The business dress code and the business hours that the school operated on attracted me because I knew it would prepare me better for working life than any college would.”

A big decision Doug made the big decision to leave his life in Cornwall and enrol at the UTC so he could choose one of its specialist study programmes and divide his time between an AS Level in maths, an NVQ Level 2 in German and an Extended Diploma in engineering. On becoming a student there, he noticed some key differences from his previous school: The UTC was so much smaller than my old community college; I felt a lot closer to my teachers and had a lot more support from them. There was always an opportunity to talk to someone if I had a question about my studies or needed advice. And then of course there was the fact that I could specialise in engineering, something that a lot of other secondary schools wouldn’t offer as a subject.”

Future plans Doug’s UTC education has really helped him shape his plans for the future: The visits from employers and work experience programmes that I got to take part in whilst at Wigan UTC made me realise just how many jobs are available to engineers and the range of sectors that engineering’s linked to. My UTC has definitely changed my life. I couldn’t have imagined getting my apprenticeship with United Utilities had I stayed at my last school. The time I spent at Wigan gave me a great outlook on where I could be in the next ten years. Choosing a UTC was the right choice for me.”

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Student profiles

Adam Waggot Alumnus Liverpool Life Sciences UTC A change of direction When Adam Waggott joined Liverpool Life Sciences UTC, he wanted to become a doctor in accident and emergency and his UTC helped him to get a placement at Liverpool Royal Hospital. He loved the experience but another opportunity offered by his school changed his thinking dramatically. Where it all started Adam joined Liverpool Life Sciences UTC in 2014 as a Year 12 student. He’d attended a mainstream school prior to this. He heard about the UTC through a friend and went along to an open day. I’d actually already selected a college to attend but when I visited Liverpool Life Sciences I knew I’d gain so much more than simply achieving the grades. I thought it was perfect.” Adam was impressed with Liverpool Life Sciences UTC for a number of reasons. The equipment was of a much higher standard and many of the teachers had a background in industry. There was also more academic expertise, which gave an opportunity to work at degree level. Finally, the links with employers meant that he felt he would develop a better understanding of industry and learn soft skills around professional conduct, interview technique and team-working.

Adam got help from his chemistry teacher, Dr Brooke to arrange a placement at Professor O’Neill’s chemistry lab at Liverpool University. There he worked alongside PhD students to research a new anti-malarial drug. It really helped me understand more about the subject and what I might do after university.”

Life-changing learning

What he did next

The UTC ran sessions where students could hear from a wide range of people involved in health sciences – the NHS, academics and business in the health sciences sector. At one of these sessions, Adam met Professor Paul O’Neill who introduced him to medicinal chemistry.

At the end of the first year Adam had the chance to undertake a two-week placement at Unilever focused on medicinal chemistry. Here he met Higher Level Apprentices who were working at Unilever and also studying a degree in medicinal chemistry at Liverpool University.

Medicinal chemistry helps to research and develop new drugs and it captured Adam’s imagination. At this point, he realised his passion for a career he never knew existed before coming to his UTC. “It dawned on me that as a doctor I’d be able help one patient at a time, but with medicinal chemistry I had the opportunity to create new drugs that could help millions.”

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I’d always assumed apprenticeships were a second option if you didn’t secure a place at university. Speaking to apprentices at Unilever made me think again and I realised that this was the option I wanted to take.”

Adam applied for the apprenticeship along with more than 300 other young people and was successful. He joined UniLever in September as one of just a handful of apprentices. When Adam has finished his four-year apprenticeship, he hopes to become a research and development chemist at Unilever and then take his career as far as possible. Why choose a UTC? Without studying at the UTC I would never have known my chosen career even existed. Liverpool Life Sciences has given me a broad understanding of the health sciences sector which means I’ve been able to make an informed choice. I’ve had amazing access to academic and industry experience, which I think a general college would struggle to offer.”

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Baker Dearing Educational Trust 4 Millbank, Westminster, London SW1P 3JA Telephone: 020 7960 1555 Email: [email protected] Website: www.utcolleges.org Patron HRH The Duke of York, KG Trustees The Rt Hon Lord Baker of Dorking CH (Chairman) Sir Kevin Satchwell (Deputy Chairman) The Rt Hon Lord Adonis Allan Cook CBE Edwina Dunn Sir John Rose Sir Mike Tomlinson CBE Dr Terri Simpkin Registered charity no 1138894. Registered company no 7390138.

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Technical Matters This publication aims to celebrate and inform all areas of the University Technical College network. Articles attributed to an author do not necessarily represent the views of the Baker Dearing Educational Trust. To submit articles and information on advertising rates, please contact the Editorial Team at: [email protected] Articles or photographs from Technical Matters may only be reproduced with written permission of the Editorial Team. ©Baker Dearing Educational Trust 2016. The publishers, authors and printers cannot accept liability for errors or omissions.