Train to gain

in the Medway area. Dave Tudor took advantage of a rare local gig and popped along to check out the new facility.

It's a sad reality that manufacturing has largely disappeared from Medway. What makes that fact even more sobering is that historically the area in its heyday was a smouldering hotbed of manufacturing and engineering at its brilliant best. Chatham Dockyard for example employed 10,000 skilled men and women in its prime and manufactured over 500 ships for the Royal Navy. It closed officially in 1984 and has since been developed as a heritage site.

But it wasn't just the Dockyard that thrived in the area: Medway was home to a wealth of manufacturing companies including BP Oil Refinery at the Isle of Grain; Winget concrete mixers, Lucas CAV, Blaw Knox, Metal Box and Hobourn Eaton, a manufacturer of lubricating oil pumps. All were major employers in the area and for any school leaver with a hankering towards establishing a career in engineering, the world really was your oyster.

It's a different world now – but now more than ever it's vitally important to attract young people into a career in manufacturing and engineering. This is a problem that blights the entire country; the skills shortage is real and it's hurting our industry and our economy. Many companies are tackling the problem head on by employing and training their own apprentices.

So what exactly are UTCs? Medway UTC's vice principal, Kieron Walsh (pictured) takes up the story: “Essentially UTCs are a national movement set-up on a regional basis and sponsored by the Baker Dearing Educational Trust,” he says. “Their aim is to close the gap in technical education for young people.

“They're government funded schools with an emphasis on not only providing high quality academic education but also applying skills learnt in practical, real world environments. They teach students technical and scientific subjects in a whole new way and are educating the inventors, engineers, scientists and technicians of tomorrow. Currently there are around 30 UTCs in the UK. Medway opened its doors in September 2015 at a cost of around £12 million.

“They've evolved simply because DT (Design Technology) departments in schools are closing down,” Mr Walsh adds. “This is predominantly due to lack of teachers with the right skills and the high costs often associated with keeping up with technology. In conventional schools which are dictated entirely by Government policy, the focus is on academic subjects such as English, Maths, Science, History, Computing, Geography and Foreign Languages.

The UTC's aim however is to integrate technical, practical and academic learning and create an environment where students can thrive and develop the abilities that industry needs.”

Under construction

The curriculum at Medway UTC includes three main areas known as technical specialisms: construction, engineering and design. Mr Walsh is particularly enthused by the opportunities in the construction sector in the Medway area: “There are a number of large projects in the pipeline – Ebbsfleet Garden City, London Paramount (a world class entertainment resort on the Swanscombe Peninsula in North Kent not to mention HS1 – that will require skilled labour to complete. Students are told to follow their dreams but around 25% aspire to ‘careers' in culture, media and sport. This only accounts for around 2.5% of the total economy so there's a massive mismatch between opportunity and reality. Our aim is to provide a ‘skills pipeline' to ensure that we have the local talent to be able to undertake these projects.”

So effectively Medway UTC offers the best of both worlds. Aimed at Year 10 and Year 12 students (14-19 year olds), it combines traditional GCSE and A Level educational pathways with additional technical specialisms for students looking to pursue a more practical career. Bearing in mind the UTC has only been open since September last year, it already has 90 Year 10 and 90 Year 12 students on its books and encouragingly these figures comprise students from around 40 different schools. The college can accommodate 600 students in total and as the curriculum develops investment in new equipment and technologies will inevitably follow.

The daily format tends to be English, Maths and Science in the morning; then subject options such as computing, business or art; and then engineering and construction in the afternoon. Students also get the chance to enter competitions; the Royal Navy for example has set an engineering challenge to all UTCs culminating in a visit to Plymouth as part of the competition.

The right attitude

Colleges seem to have adopted a ‘part time' approach in recent years but how can this prepare young people for working life? Fortunately the Medway UTC shares this view; the working day starts at 8.15am and continues on until 5pm – much more in tune with the ‘real world' – and there's no homework.

“Having the right attitude to work is of paramount importance here,” Mr Walsh affirms. “We encourage our students to work as part of a team just as they would in a company. We teach them listening and debating skills but also business awareness and problem solving. All of our partner companies, with the exception of the Royal School of Military Engineering, are profit making organisations. This is an important aspect of any business.”

Partners in success

Key to a UTCs success – not only educationally but also from a mentorship, development, support and future employment perspective is a close working relationship with its partner companies. In the case of Medway, a huge amount of support is received from BAE Systems in Rochester, Delphi Diesel Systems in Gillingham, BAM Construction, Bouygues Construction, the University of Greenwich, the Royal School of Military Engineering, Mid-Kent College, Gainwell Futures and Kreston Reeves. Mr Walsh is keen to emphasise that the UTC is always looking to expand its portfolio of partner companies.

Importantly, representatives from these companies sit on the UTCs board of governors (headed up by Delphi technical centre manager Paul Charman) and set students real world assignments and projects to undertake – a recent case in point being evaluating and developing Delphi's urea injector used extensively on fuel injection systems in diesel engines.

The students were tasked with developing an Advanced Product Specification; disassembling an actual unit; learning how the unit is manufactured; and how quality standards are maintained throughout manufacture. The designers of the product at Delphi actually visited the UTC and gave the students a detailed presentation on what the injector does and how it's made. A ‘masterclass' on CAD/CAM is planned for February.

So it's absolutely clear that both partner companies and the board of governors play a crucially vital role in the day to day running of the UTC, shaping its direction and future aspirations. Indeed they're well placed to identify their own respective future employment needs which can have a direct bearing on the UTC curriculum. Regional skills for regional needs is the order of the day here.

Spot the difference

“As our students are aged between 14 and 19 years old we're judged more as a school than a college,” Mr Walsh advises. “Our scope is effectively Key Stage 4 plus a sixth form studying towards GCSE, A-Levels and BTEC qualifications but an important differentiation between ourselves and traditional schools is that we already have established relationships and links with our partner companies so they can assist with work placements, work experience and personal development. These companies are real role models – students can consider future paths to university (the University of Greenwich is a partner) or even apply for work and apprenticeship opportunities with our partners.

“We certainly offer something different,” he continues. “The normal route in is that students looking to pursue a career in construction or engineering would have heard about us in Year 9 (13 years old) and then enrolled for a Year 10 start. However, competition is very fierce between schools and funding is granted on a per capita basis so when kids express an interest in joining the UTC sometimes there's some resistance from their existing schools. That's just the way of the world unfortunately but it's always vital to consider the individual needs of the student in such decisions. “In an ideal world we'd be looking to spread the word about careers in engineering at primary school age and part of my brief is to get into schools as part of the education process,” he concludes. “Kids are naturally curious at that age to discover how things work and it's important we nurture and inspire that natural inquisitiveness.”

Medway UTC
www.medwayutc.co.uk