Next Gen News

The UK 's first university college offers hands on training for the young engineers of the future needs of the industry

The 18th-century mill in the village of Rocester, near Uttoxeter is a stunning blend of ancient and modern. Rooms are spacious and light, with views of the Staffordshire moorlands. This was a cotton mill for two centuries, until its closure by Courtaulds in the 1980s. It has now been adapted for academic use - to educate the engineers who will be required by the industries of tomorrow. This is the site of the JCB academy, Britain's first university technical college (UTC), which opened for its second academic year on 22 August.

UTCs are the brainchild of Mr. Baker. The former education minister is back with a rekindling of the vision for reform. He is chairman of the Baker-Dearing Trust, which developed the idea of ??colleges. JCB may be the first to be UTC, but it won 't be the last. Next month, the Black Country academy is open, also in Staffordshire, and the current education secretary and the chancellor, George Osborne, has already provided funding for a further 24-2014 known. Baker sees 200-300 in 10 years 'time.

Although they sound like the universities, in fact UTCs are non-selective schools for pupils aged 14 to 19, sponsored by the universities. You need to teach practical subjects such as engineering, product design and health sciences, specialized equipment, as well as English, mathematics, natural sciences, humanities, languages ??and IT. The students also do 40-80 days \ professional experience of the year. "This will be the answer to all the mistakes we've 'be made in British education," Baker told the Guardian this year.

"No pressure then?" I ask Jim Wade, rector of the JCB, which is supported by five universities, including Cambridge.

"All I can do is try to deliver a first-class education for the students who come here," he says. "And it's my belief that there are a group of youngsters out there for whom this is a preferred way of learning. If you can provide them with that, you can enthuse them."

You must be enthusiastic, because they 're here from 8:30 am to 5pm three days a week. Students come from a 18-mile radius, so they get buses in Derby, Stafford or Stoke-on-Trent at 7:20 every day. "You get used to it," says Wade. The record attendance is 95.6%, higher than the national average. "And they do work experience during their holidays. You may meet real engineers."