2011: The University Technology College - a basis for a manufacturing renaissance?

The sixth Owers Lecture took place in front of an invited audience at Oracle's city office in Moorgate, London.

"...if I am talking to young people and I am talking to their parents and I am talking to practioners in the field, I would probably want to talk more about elevating the practical, valuing the technical perhaps. The core purpose of University Technical Colleges being to do just that."

Download the written version of Steve's speech

Peter Mitchell, Chief Executive of the Baker Dearing Educational Trust, responded to Stephen's presentation, provoking a vigorous discussion with participants. His key points included:

• Only half our children at 16 years are getting ‘A’ to ‘C’ grade in English and Maths.
• The ability to have English and Maths at a reasonable level is a very important basis for social mobility.
• It is absolutely vital for a well educated well trained community.
• The consistent message we are getting from employers is that what this country is short of are highly qualified, highly skilled technicians - graduate level downwards.

On how schools operate:

• We get the curriculum up and running.
• We think how are we going to do the teaching. And then maybe, we think let’s invite the employers, and we wonder why they don’t want to join in.
• In too many cases our educational system is not producing people that employers actually need and value.
• The schools we have are not planning for progression.
• We get to the end of school and we say ‘What am I going to do next?’

So what we have in this country is:

• An education system with built-in failure in English and Maths.
• An Education system without progression.And an education system in which practical skills are not valued.
• This is such a great challenge that in order to move forward we have to have new institutions.

To achieve the University Technical Colleges we have to do two things:

• Raise the status and hence connecting it with the university.
• Employer engagement driving the curriculum is vital.

Richard Millwood summed up:

"It became clear from both speakers that education is broken and that radical innovation is absolutely required. They have outlined a principled approach that will attend to under-represented learners, who it is believed will benefit from an approach to learning that is about doing and making. This learner-centred approach intends to unlock their potential to achieve at the highest level, hence the 'university' in the title. The challenge is what systemic approach will ensure success? So many aspects of education must be got right in relation to the understanding in the wider community, sympathetic treatment from the press and political support from all parties, for which the signs are good. A particular concern must be the output measures used to assess the success of UTCs, which can be so easily scuppered by the wrong measures."

The lecture was held at the Oracle City Office, Moorgate, London.