In episode six of our second series of Let’s Talk South Coast, our host Nella Pang is joined by Alex Blandford, Assistant Principal at UTC Portsmouth to talk about how community technology colleges partner with local businesses to help develop curriculums that instill key skills to the future workforce.

What you’ll hear about in this episode: 

• The different UTC sites and what they are trying to achieve within the local community
• How these colleges are funded
• Their aim to help students to consider the next steps within their careers/education
• How an ageing population and growing skills gap provides an opportunity for students
• The STEM learning habits they teach their students 
• Their ambition to bring UTC to Southampton and why Alex thinks this is so important
• Their primary outreach program that works to promote STEM within the local area

Companies Mentioned:

• Lockheed Martin
• NHS
• IBM
• DSTL
• PWC
• Baker Dearing Educational Trust
• https://fi-rem.com/
• Southampton City Council
• GO! Southampton
• Southampton Science Park

Shout Outs:

• James Doherty
• Lord Ken Barker

Key Insights From This Episode:

• There's actually 46 other UTCs, so 47 in total all across the country, and we've all got the same remit in that we are looking to fulfil a shortfall in the local workforce. - Alex
• The easiest way to look at it is we're funded, the same as any other state school. The difference is we are backed by industry partners. - Alex
• We've proved the model works and we've made UTC Portsmouth a real beacon of STEM in the local community. - Alex
• We currently engage with 11 local primary schools  and we are really keen to expand that to secondary schools as our outreach program grows. - Alex

About Our Guest:

Alex Blandford is the Assistant Principal at UTC Portsmouth, a specialist STEM College. Prior to this he was Head of Department at Springfield School.

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