LO4: first draft

UTC on the rise?

UTC Sheffield is a college for 14-19 year olds which provides specialism education in either Advanced Engineering & Manufacturing or Creative & Digital Media. Students will do one of the technical specialism alongside their GCSEs or A Levels which produces a career focused education.

 UTC opened Opening in September 2013 to support technical education, an area that is  which has been greatly devalued over the years, it does this by providing the appropriate resources and subjects which adhere to the chosen technical qualification. Currently the UTC (and other schools like it) are trying to change the perception of technical subjects as sometimes they are not recognised in performance measure and often devalued. 

A former student, Florence Gibbs-Price, who joined the UTC in its second year 2014, stated that the environment in the UTC was a “more relaxed and mature environment” this helps students achieve high level results as they are in productive surroundings. The relationship between students and teachers is an important factor in the UTCs success as they are comfortable around each other which provides mutual respect. Florence studied Creative & Digital Media and said that it gave her the knowledge to grow in her current photography course at Lincoln Art College, this can also help her with employment as she has a vast knowledge in different sector of media meaning she has a 2-year advantage over other students.

In February 2016 the school had its first Ofsted inspection, they received a ‘Good’ rating. In the report areas which need most improvement were English and Y10 Attendance, Mr Reynolds confirmed the school had improved in these areas since the inspection and continue to grow year on year. In the report they also touch on the “Business-like culture” which prepares students for future employment.

Although providing a technical education 48% of students still attend further education at university and  only 28% choosing an apprenticeship but this is still higher than a normal college where only around 7% of students choose an apprenticeship.


This is the first draft of my article, to improve my article I need to add in more information from the interviews and add a conclusion to the article.