Just a few moments with 16 year-old Sam Thompsett and the skills crisis seems like a distant memory. "When I first came in here it was like: 'wow'," says Sam with the alacrity of a Labrador pup as he darts into the workshop area of newly opened Leigh University Technical College (UTC) in Dartford, Kent. "At my school we had one milling machine so this is just unbelievable," he adds, surveying row upon row of sparkling new CNC machines and lathes.
No, Thompsett is not an early April Fool's trick, or a foreign exchange student from Germany. Here stands a young Brit passionate about a career in production and there are hundreds like him near you. The UTC model was launched in 2009 under the government's dream of creating an elite network of vocational training centres for teenagers with a talent for hands on learning.
Over the coming years, Thompsett and hundreds of other 14-18 year-olds at Leigh, the 30th incarnation of the UTC model, will follow a syllabus deliberately weighted towards workshop activity. "I never saw myself working in an office. I just can't sit still for long periods of time," explains Thompsett.
Sixty per cent of UTC learning involves proactive, practical activities like designing new products and working in teams to deliver them. That's backed up by core classroom studies in maths, English and enrichment activities such as sport, drama and art.
It's a recipe for a new wave of highly employable young people, according to the UTC prospectus. The schools produce graduates who take textbook theory and turn it into something tangible. The perfect antidote to employers who complain of A* students who capitulate when they first confront a lathe.
"In 1945 we had 300 technical schools, but they were all closed by 1951," Lord Baker, former education minister and driving force behind the UTCs, told attendees at Leigh's official opening. "They were killed by snobbery. Everyone wanted to be at the grammar school up on the hill, not the technical college down in the town. That was a massive mistake and one that Germany didn't make."
Oh yes, don't forget to mention those pesky Germans. Not only did they put their towels down first on every Englishman's dream by winning the World Cup last summer, but they also got the jump on us by building a thriving economy based around engineering excellence. Manufacturing accounts for 21% of Germany's GDP compared with 11% in the UK. The advantage is built on a rich supply of skilled young workers who blend core technical know-how with vocational prowess. Training is co-ordinated by employers and trade unions, and subsidised by the government.
A job almost guaranteed
There are encouraging signs that UTCs are starting to help the UK close the gap, says Lord Baker. "One of the things we're most proud of is that no-one from a UTC has joined the ranks of the unemployed... if you give people skills then it will lead to jobs."
One person hoping to prove that mantra is 17 year-old engineering student, Harry Dressel. Dressel, like his friend Thompsett, took a leap of faith by joining the fledgling UTC rather than enrol in his school sixth form."The facilities here really made me sign up," he says. "Another big plus is you get a lot more hours studying engineering than you would in a college. We do classroom learning, but you spend time in practical project teams."
Dressel's work designing an electric racing car offers a case in point. It is a venture which has honed his AutoCAD design skills, appreciation of teamwork and working to a budget. All being well, he will graduate from the UTC with the equivalent of three A-levels. "My friends at my old school say: 'it sounds better than our sixth form," says Dressel. "I feel bad for them, but it was their choice. You get so much more from coming here."
UTCs could well be on their way to achieving a major coup. A second chance for youngsters yearning for something more hands-on that isn't perceived by employers as second rate. "When I was a five year-old kid I was inspired by building Lego models," says Dressel. "I suffer from dyslexia which made school challenging. But when I'm solving a problem everything is clear in my head."
That's music to the ears of local employers like James Bendall, visiting the UTC from his day job running a small manufacturing firm in nearby Orpington. "The average age of our CNC operators is 53 and our access to young talent is just dismal," he explains. "We're not in the Midlands and we're not a Jaguar Land Rover so to have the UTC open down the road from us is just amazing."
You might want to check things out for yourself before launching into your next tirade about the absence of young engineering talent in your area. Book an appointment with your nearest UTC at http://www.utcolleges.org/utcs/
