The need for positive and high-impact relationships between education and industry has never been greater. As we develop further through the digital revolution, education must prepare young people for jobs that don’t yet exist, while simultaneously helping them to develop key personal characteristics, including flexibility, empathy, creativity and enterprise.

University technical colleges (UTCs) are uniquely placed to build and nurture relationships with employers of all sizes, to ensure that the education that our young people need is preparing them for the world of work.

There has never been a blueprint for employer engagement or project-based learning in schools, but UTCs have been developing and experimenting with ways in which this can work alongside the need to support students through technical qualifications, GCSEs and A levels.

Background: What is project-based learning?

More on this: Seven ways to use project-based learning

Background: New UTC approved after DfE ‘pause’

Central pillar

The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) report, Evaluation of University Technical Colleges, published today clearly demonstrates the profound impact effective employer engagement and project-based learning has on UTC students, and both need to be given the right resources to develop within an educational institution.

Like all UTCs, employer engagement at UTC Reading is a central pillar of our organisation and we have been developing this since before the UTC opened in September 2013. To begin with, employers helped to develop the initial curriculum for the UTC to ensure that it was relevant, focused and ultimately going to develop the skills and knowledge that they needed in their future employees. For UTC Reading, this meant developing a curriculum that was going to prepare the next generation of engineers and computer scientists.

UTC Reading delivers engineering and computing technical qualifications alongside GCSEs and A levels and each year since opening we have adapted the way in which we work with employers to ensure that we can provide the very best opportunities for our students. When the UTC first opened with approximately 160 students, we ran large-scale projects with industry partners that were based on real-life problems.

Monitor student performance

Students would work in vertical project groups, adopting team roles to identify solutions. They would work closely with industry partners who provided mentoring and coaching and would monitor student performance. There would be recognition of individual and team performance at the end of the project. Projects like these take a significant amount of planning but they have become business as usual and our students expect it.

As we have grown in student numbers, projects such as these have changed, and we now deliver a significant part of our employer engagement through the #utcpipelineprogramme. Twelve companies (six engineering and six computing) work in partnership with all our Year 12 and 13 students over eight full days.

During this time, students will be in groups of approximately 20, working with an employer of their choice who they will build a relationship with to really understand the company, the opportunities and to develop vital skills and knowledge from industry experts. The return on investment for these companies is that they can work with, develop and assess their future workforce with a view to offering employment, apprenticeships or degree apprenticeships once the students reach the end of Year 13.

Co-delivering a topic

Project-based learning can be developed within curricula in a number of ways, but one way we have found that works well is something we call Co-Teach. An employer partner and teacher will work together to co-deliver a topic, subject or BTEC module to bring it alive and add real context to the learning experience for the students. Initially, this worked well with technical qualifications, but as we have developed, this style of delivery can work equally well with GCSEs and A levels, too.

With industry progressing at a phenomenal rate, it can be hard for education to keep up with the ever-changing landscape. For employer engagement and project-based learning continue to be successful, it is important to ensure it remains a focal point for development plans within the UTC and, ideally, someone in the senior team must be held to account for it. At UTC Reading, the business relations manager does just that, along with UTC Heathrow and UTC Swindon, as part of the Activate Learning Education Trust (ALET). Ideally, this person should be from industry but with a good understanding of the challenges within education.

The relationship between industry and education needs to be mutually beneficial. It is important that the industry partner profile and reputation is raised when working with UTC students if companies are going to be successful at attracting the very best talent when they leave the UTC at 18.

When students see what careers and opportunities are available to them at the end of education, their motivation can soar and, as a result, so can their academic progress. This is relevant today and it will continue to be so in the future.

Jonathan Nicholls is principal of UTC Reading