The young people and work interim report published this morning mentions University Technical Colleges, the secondary schools supported by the Baker Dearing Educational Trust. Our CEO Kate Ambrosi has issued the following response to the report.
“What the Young People and Work interim report has found is truly shocking. We are not just facing an issue of young people being temporarily out of work or education. But a situation where work is completely beyond their reach. The one million young people who are NEET could become, as the report states, a lost generation.
“Alan Milburn is completely right that the institutions and mechanisms we use were designed for a different era, a different cohort and a different set of problems, and are now escalating rather than defusing the NEET crisis.
“Schools should be measured on student destinations, not what learners achieve in an exam room. That has been key to the success of the University Technical Colleges which we support and which deliver high-quality technical education, in cooperation with local and national employers, at the secondary school level.
“We welcome the report’s support for UTCs in improving young peoples’ enrolment in apprenticeships and employment prospects. However, we argue that the report’s spotlight on our students’ academic achievement misunderstands the objective of UTCs.
“One fifth of our year 13 leavers progress to an apprenticeship each year and a half of those apprenticeships are higher- or degree-level. These are the outcomes for which each of England’s 44 UTCs are reaching. Academic achievement is a means to achieve that and, as the stats show, it is an approach that works.
“We are calling on the government to extend the transformative benefits of a UTC education – such as better apprenticeship progression and improved outcomes for SEND and free school meal learners – to more young people by piloting UTC Sleeves.
“UTC Sleeves involve developing a high-quality, employer-led technical education pathway within a mainstream school, a sort of mini-UTC.
“One UTC Sleeve is due to open in Barrow-in-Furness this September and the government can work with us to build a strong nationwide programme of UTC Sleeves to help more young people. This, combined with an expanding number of UTCs, will help put an end to this crisis.”
The report makes the following mentions of the UTC programme:
“There have been repeated attempts to broaden the curriculum and open up vocational pathways. Since 2010, effort has focused on offering better quality vocational options at Key Stage 4, including through the introduction of Technical Awards and much-discussed reforms to BTECs. We have also seen the introduction and growth of University Technical Colleges, aiming to embed more technical education alongside the core curriculum for young people from age 14. These attempts have consistently aimed to rebalance academic and vocational learning for those aged 14 to 16, before they move into post-16 provision.”
“Specialist technical institutions, such as Institutes of Technology (IoTs), University Technical Colleges (UTCs) and Technical Excellence Colleges (TECs) have shown promise. UTCs boost vocational achievement without harming academic achievement for students who enter at 16 and improve enrolment in apprenticeships and employment prospects by age 19. However, the same analysis shows a sizeable negative effect on academic achievement for those who enter at age 14. More time and evidence are needed to understand how best to utilise specialist institutions like UTCs as part of the broader education offer.”
