I have been involved with Sheffield’s University Technical Colleges since 2013, soon after the decision was taken to establish a new school in the Creative Industries Quarter, which would operate on a different model to traditional secondary schools, would better reflect a working environment, would encourage close engagement with employers, would teach a specialist curriculum alongside an academic one, and would have Creative and Digital Media as one of it’s specialisms, alongside Engineering.

This initial school is now well established and since then we have established a second school at the Olympic Legacy Park, specialising in Human Sciences and Computing. The original steering group I was part of has also transformed into a a Multi-Academy Trust,  of which I am one of the Directors, and continues to work to provide young people from Sheffield and the surrounding area opportunities to learn technical skills alongside academic subjects, and in collaboration with local employers.

You can find out more about the Sheffield UTCs here.