A new London School offering pupils as young as 14 with digital qualifications alongside standard GCSEs is due to open this September.
Hackney Universal Technical College has been developed to prepare students for the digital economy. Located near Old Street’s ‘Silicon Roundabout’ area (also known as ‘Tech City’), the school’s cirriculum has been created in collaboration with a number of technology companies in the Hackney borough.
Hackney council has already invested £28,000 in an apprenticeship and work placement scheme that will connect Hackney school leavers with Tech City firms, and the new college represents a further move towards making digital training more accessible to students.
“The motivation behind the UTC is to enable young people to benefit from the growth in opportunities in the digital sector,” says head teacher Annie Blackmore. “A lot of young people in schools have got very creative ideas with IT but when it comes to designing a program or developing an app they don’t have those technical skills.”
In return, Ms Blackmore hopes that tech companies arriving in the borough will recognise its homegrown talent.
The college is launching a Tech City Challenge, which encourages every Tech City company to hire at least one local young person as an apprentice. It is the first University Technical College in London.
Anthony Painter, chairman of the governors at Hackney UTC, said: “The creative digital economy is going to expand enormously. It has reached critical mass in east London. But many employers can’t find people to work in jobs such as coders or programmers. They are having to go overseas to recruit.”
Firms including Cisco and BT, as well as Homerton hospital and the University of East London have helped to design the curriculum and will provide mentors and work experience.
Pupils will join the school at the age of 14 and choose to study either digital or health related technologies, working towards a Cambridge Technical Qualification.
At the same time, they also study for eight core GCSEs, including English, maths, history and science.
The school, being built on the site of Hackney Community College, will have a replica hospital ward, a recording studio and broadcasting suite.
The colleges are the idea of former education secretary
Kenneth Baker. When they were launched last year, Lord Baker said: “If we are going to have high-speed rail, the fastest broadband in the world, new nuclear power stations, we are going to need technicians.
“We simply don’t have enough technically orientated people coming through. Eleven is too soon to choose that, 16 is too late; 14 is the right age of transfer.”
http://hackneyutc.co.uk/
