Sector engagement with UTC Heathrow: Briefing and workshop
This event is open to all but aimed at operators with sites in West London and Thames Valley and provides an opportunity to work directly with UTC Heathrow to help shape their curriculum to provide a data centre specific offering.
University Technical Colleges (UTCs) are UK government-funded schools that are committed to transforming lives through education. Open to learners aged 14-19, UTCs are dedicated to an alternative way of teaching technical and scientific subjects and creating the engineers, scientists and technicians of tomorrow.
UTC Heathrow, based less than 20 miles from Slough's Industrial Trading Estate, has agreed to redesign their existing curriculum to add the data centre sector as a new career path option. A large part of the UTCs curriculum is based around project-based learning, and we need industry partners to get involved and help define this. The college currently has 247 learners aged from 14-19 with learner numbers increasing by 20% every year.
We are working with CNet Training who have already agreed to share part of its curriculum towards the 2-4 year program. Now we need others in the industry to help design and deliver specialist technical curriculum in both engineering and digital (including cyber security), and provide work experience placements in and around the Slough area, the largest data centre cluster in the UK.
Agenda
Introduction and welcome – Emma Fryer, Associate Director Data Centres, techUK
Introducing the opportunity – Andrew Stevens, President and CEO, CNet Training
About UTCs: Mike Halliday, Senior Advisor, Baker Dearing Educational Trust
Discussion - All
Next steps: – Mike Halliday
More about UTCs
The purpose of UTCs is to educate and equip young people with the relevant skills and knowledge that can be applied directly to the workplace and help them to prepare for a career.
Each UTC is created out of a need to increase local industry skills and jobs. The creation of a UTC brings together an ongoing partnership between local organisations, local universities and government to create a UTC which focuses on teaching the skills that are in demand by local industries and are in short supply. For example, UTC Heathrow has historically concentrated on aviation training and development.
Alongside the usual core academic curriculum, UTCs are comparable to a combination of schools and apprenticeship training. Technical and project-based learning is a crucial focus for UTCs, it teaches young people a different way of learning, often with industry-relevant projects developed in partnership with local organisations. This gives learners industry experience and helps them to develop skills that will make them highly desirable when it comes to looking for employment. Unlike standard school hours, learners are prepared for the commercial world, they attend UTCs from 8.30 am to 5 pm and dress appropriately for a commercial environment.
The Opportunity
This is a chance to be part of the first Data Centre University Technical College and is an exciting opportunity for organisations and industry leaders to join forces with UTC Heathrow and be involved in shaping the data centre curriculum in the UK. For organisations keen to be involved and partner with UTC Heathrow, this is a chance to be at the forefront of change and to get stuck in with the key decision making about what skills and talent the industry really needs.
We see this as one route for the sector to help address its skills crisis. Organisations can work directly with a college full of learners who will spend the next 2-4 years developing their skills and understanding of the data centre sector and preparing themselves for the world of work. Participating organisations will have access to an ongoing supply of talent, trained by specialist teachers for viable jobs within the sector who will be based locally. In the longer term this allows operators to protect their talent pipeline and provide skills, knowledge, qualifications and employment for the next generation.
This is a long-term project which has the potential to be repeated across other UTCs all over the UK, to educate and develop individuals and help to future-proof the sector.
