New colleges focus on engineering
6 Aug 2014
Five of the seven new University Technical Colleges (UTCs) announced by chancellor George Osborne yesterday will be focussed on engineering.
UTCs are free schools developed with industry partners to deliver practical experience of industry alongside GCSE and A Level curriculums. There are currently 17 UTCs open, the vast majority of which are focussed on engineering, and following yesterday’s announcement by 2016 there will be 57 such colleges open across the country.
The seven new colleges announced by Osborne yesterday and their specialisms are:
| UTC | Specialisms |
|---|---|
|
Bromley UTC |
Health and Wellbeing Sciences |
|
Leeds UTC |
Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering |
|
Scarborough UTC |
Advanced Engineering, Design & Control |
|
Sheffield Human Science and Digital Technologies UTC |
Human Sciences, Digital Technologies |
|
South Durham UTC |
Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering |
|
UTC Crewe |
Engineering, Manufacturing and Design |
|
WMG Academy for Young Engineers (Solihull) |
Engineering with Science |
A handful of the new colleges are being supported by firms from the process industries, with Crewe UTC backed by Siemens, Bosch and Oliver Valves, Leeds UTC backed by Siemens and Unilever, and Scarborough UTC backed by McCain Foods.
Yesterday’s announcement, which also included the establishment four smaller “studio schools”, was welcomed by Royal Academy of Engineering chief executive Philip Greenish.
“The UK needs many more people with skills in innovation, creativity and enterprise – skills that are fundamental to engineering and key to the UK’s competitive edge,” said Greenish.
“University Technical Colleges are superbly positioned to reach out to young people from all backgrounds, male and female, and to bring to life the wonderful opportunities available from a career in engineering.”
