BAKER DEARING EDUCATIONAL TRUST – WRITTEN EVIDENCE (YUN0059)
Youth Unemployment Committee inquiry
BAKER DEARING EDUCATIONAL TRUST – WRITTEN EVIDENCE (YUN0059)
Youth Unemployment Committee inquiry
This presentation contains the submission by the Baker Dearing Educational Trust, on behalf of University Technical Colleges (UTCs), to The House of Lords Committee on Youth Unemployment.
As secondary education institutions, UTCs are best placed to provide evidence related to the following questions posed by the Committee as part of its assessment:
• What lessons can be learned from alternative models of education and assessment? What are the
challenges with, and obstacles to, the adoption of such models?
• What more needs to be done to ensure parity of esteem between vocational and academic study in the jobs market and society? How can funding play a role in this?
• What is the role of business and universities in creating a thriving jobs market for young people? How
should they be involved in developing skills and training programmes at further and higher education level?
This submission provides an overview of the UTC programme, an explanation of a UTC education and the role of employers and universities, the characteristics of UTC students, and a detailed analysis of student leaver outcomes.
1. Introduction to UTCs Page 4
2. UTC Difference Page 9
3. UTC Student Characteristics Page 18
4. UTC Student Leaver Destinations Page 24
transformative to young peoples’ life chances.”
Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education, April 2021.
1. Introduction to UTCs
“I would like the Government to do more to support university technical colleges. They have some superb outcomes and our ambition should be to have a UTC in every town across the country.”
- Robert Halfon MP, Chair, Education Select Committee, May 2021.
Introduction: UTCs and Baker Dearing
• National family of 48 state-funded schools offering a distinctively different educational choice. First UTC opened in 2010, majority from 2013 onwards.
• UTCs provide a strong grounding in core subjects (English, Maths and Science) plus one or more technical specialisms linked to local industry partners and a university.
• Employers very active: governing body representation, provision of real-life curriculum projects, mentoring of
students, delivering work experience, assisting with recruitment etc.
• Over 400 employers (large and small) and universities support UTCs today.
• Typically for students aged 13 to 18, UTCs provide young people with technical qualifications, employability skills,
personal values, and profession behaviours relevant for the future jobs’ market.
• UTCs are judged by destination outcomes not examinations. Impressive student leaver track record of high apprenticeship starts, STEM courses at university, and low NEETs.
• UTC Programme founded, and supported, by the Baker Dearing Educational Trust.