|
|
|
|
|
|
|
After six years of preparation the innovative JCB Academy opened its doors to pupils for the first time this school year. The new facility has high tech equipment and a staff focused on helping to train a new generation of engineering business leaders.
Jim Wade, the principal of the school, is excited by that prospect: “The key for us is that young people walk through our doors with dreams and aspirations of being the engineering and business leaders of the future. We aim to ensure those aspirations are realised.”
To achieve that the academy takes an innovative approach to teaching. Each school year is made up of five blocks of eight weeks. Each of those blocks are then focused on an engineering challenge designed and run with challenge partners from industry.
“The JCB Academy is for 14 to 19 year olds and the focus of the students’ curriculum is around solving engineering problems. All of their curriculum is working alongside business organisations to solve real world engineering problems. This means working with both our staff and people from those companies. That’s an experience that it would be difficult for the youngsters to have in a different environment.
“Obviously the 14 to 16 year olds do their core GCSEs alongside their engineering and business learning. But as much as possible we do delivery of those GCSEs through their engineering challenges. So they learn about forces and motion while they’re designing their own remote control off-road vehicle. The science is built into that engineering challenge activity.”
Jim Wade is keen to stress that although a lot of work was involved in building engineering firms into the system, it was not hard to convince them to take part.
“We went out and sold them a vision as to what we are all about. This is the first school of its kind anywhere in the UK and I have to say one of the things that has never ceased to amaze me is the commitment of the engineering profession to develop the next generation of engineering business leaders.
“The challenge partners came away with us for a three day conference. We had five of those last year where we put the outline of the challenges together. Then, working alongside people from those business organisations, we’ve turned those activities into concrete pieces of work that the youngsters work through.”
Those challenges include designing and building a fuel pump alongside Rolls Royce and creating a control system for a level crossing alongside Network Rail. This is not work done at most schools or colleges.
With such an unusual offering, the JCB Academy has worked hard to reassure parents, many of whom have taken their child out of their established school to join it in its first year of operation.
Jim Wade explained: “We spent a lot of time speaking to parents about what the academy was all about and the curriculum the youngsters would experience. And to make sure there is a loop, each student has a mentor who meets with the student once a week and the outcome of that conversation is emailed home.”
Although the JCB Academy is the only academy of its kind in the UK, that may not be true for long. University Technical Colleges are being set up as the government plans to establish them across the UK. These will teach more 14 to 19 year olds technical skills for business careers much as the academy aims to.
Mr Wade feels this is a good step for the UK economy, saying: “The key concept is developing engineering business leaders of the future and providing a really high quality technical education for the young people who come here. Thinking about UK PLC we need to inspire young people to follow technical routes and one of the ways you can do that is to set up great facilities alongside great companies.”
 Download this article.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|