ISBN: PB: 9781915054760
Legend Times Group, University of Buckingham Press
February 2022
320 pp.
39,6x13,7 cm
PB:
£19.99
QTY:
Categories:
University Technical Colleges
The former Secretary of State for Education, Lord Baker, crossbench peer Lord Dearing and industrialist Sir Anthony Bamford shared a vision. They imagined a new type of secondary school that would prepare young people for careers in science, technology and engineering.
University Technical Colleges (UTCs) offer a curriculum linked to key sectors of the economy and deliver it in partnership with employers, using real-world projects and industry-standard equipment. UTC students go on to fast-track apprenticeships, higher education and rewarding careers.
Conceived under a Labour government, UTCs were expected to offer qualifications called Diplomas as part of a new 14-19 phase of education. After the 2010 general election, Conservative ministers had other priorities. UTCs opened just as policy shifted in favour of traditional academic subjects, strict accountability measures, multi-academy trusts and competition - not collaboration – at the local level.
This account of the first ten, turbulent years of UTCs is based on contemporary records, meetings with people who run them and interviews with some of the young people they were set up to serve.
University Technical Colleges (UTCs) offer a curriculum linked to key sectors of the economy and deliver it in partnership with employers, using real-world projects and industry-standard equipment. UTC students go on to fast-track apprenticeships, higher education and rewarding careers.
Conceived under a Labour government, UTCs were expected to offer qualifications called Diplomas as part of a new 14-19 phase of education. After the 2010 general election, Conservative ministers had other priorities. UTCs opened just as policy shifted in favour of traditional academic subjects, strict accountability measures, multi-academy trusts and competition - not collaboration – at the local level.
This account of the first ten, turbulent years of UTCs is based on contemporary records, meetings with people who run them and interviews with some of the young people they were set up to serve.
About the author
David Harbourne has extensive experience of developing, promoting and researching technical education. He was chief executive of the Hotel and Catering Training Company in the mid-1990s, joined the Learning and Skills Council in 2000 and later combined two roles: research director at the Edge Foundation and senior education advisor at the Baker Dearing Educational Trust. He has also written a book about a town in New Zealand: Penguins under the Porch, a Yorkshireman's Ode to Oamaru.