A new industry report has called on the government to back Baker Dearing’s technical education pathways for schools and exempt UTCs from incoming national curriculum requirement.

Baker Dearing Chief Executive Kate Ambrosi, Life President Lord Baker, and UTC stakeholders attended Tuesday 1 April’s launch of the Make UK Industrial Strategy Skills Commission’s report, Skills for success: the reforms essential to our economic future. The launch was presented by the trust’s chairman and Make UK Chief Executive Stephen Phipson CBE and Baker Dearing International Chairman Robert Halfon, who also co-chairs the commission.

The report recommends the government expand the University Technical College model and preserve academy freedoms to offer more technical routes in pre-16 education and increase the whole sector’s talent pipeline.

The report reads: “The UTC Sleeve model should be supported to embed technical and employability skills across the pre-16 curriculum.

“The Government should reconsider its approach in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to restricting academy freedoms, which risk preventing innovative approaches from schools to focusing on the application of skills and knowledge; it will ensure that neither the legislation nor the Curriculum and Assessment Review remove or restrict the ability of employers to shape pupils’ access to technical options and employability skills in school.”

Kate Ambrosi made the following response to the report:

“The report of the Make UK Industrial Strategy Skills Commission contains a number of well thought-out and sensible recommendations for meeting this country’s yawning skills gap.

“We are greatly pleased that the report recommends the government support our UTC Sleeve initiative. This would develop a technical education pathway within mainstream schools, broadening opportunities for young people to progress onto apprenticeships and careers in sectors much in need of young STEM talent.

“The initiative’s inclusion in the report demonstrates the sheer weight of employer support behind it. This is a solution to skills gaps and the lack of technical education in our schools that carries an industry seal of approval.

“Through the report, the committee has also raised concerns about the Schools Bill’s proposal to compel all schools – including UTCs – to deliver the national curriculum.

“Having to deliver the national curriculum would dilute the specialist technical education of UTCs, each of which matches what it teaches students with the skills needed by local industry. This specialist curriculum provides students with the technical and employability skills they need to progress into sustainable careers. Last year, four times more UTC leavers progressed onto apprenticeships than the national average.

“Baker Dearing thanks the commission and Make UK for this report. We would urge the government to follow its recommendations.”