Skills Builder Global

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UTC Warrington

Context

UTC Warrington is a purpose built technical college for 14-19 year olds. The college opened in central Warrington in September 2016. Our key focus is to support young people prepare for the world of work, develop technical skills and to find meaningful careers. This includes apprenticeships, university, or employment. The result is students have the opportunity to forge valuable relationships and experiences within the STEM industry in the North West and beyond. UTCW's primary focus is to prepare students for a high quality career within science, technology, digital and engineering pathways. Students study academic and technical subjects through a range of GCSE and post-16 qualifications. We also offer students the opportunity to focus on developing their practical skills and to work directly with the region's employers. We got involved with the Skillsbuilder Accelerator programme as it provided our students the opportunity to develop and practice the skills they require for the world of work.

Overall impact

The Accelerator program has allowed us to develop our students to be ready for the world of work. We work closely with employers who would often say that their apprentices would still need to work on certain attributes. The program has allowed us to show students what skills they currently possess and how to develop them all further. Our employer partners have been impressed with the overall quality of the apprentices that come from the UTC since we took on the Accelerator programme. Our students are now more confident/resilient as they can see where they have improved due to the benchmarking process and the opportunities we provide to develop themselves. Ensuring regular exposure to the skills has allowed all of our students to progress at a good pace. Our drop down days have helped strengthen student skills with good attendance and ensure the students with poor attendance do not miss out. Our late arriving students are also appreciative that we put on break sessions to teach students the skills they need to be successful. Our staff appreciate having specific scripted language to help students develop their own skills and break down what each level means. It has enabled CPD sessions to be more cohesive as all staff are using the same language which we are starting to see when our students talk.

Keep it simple

Skill icons are displayed in every classroom, whiteboards and in our lecture theatre. We have a 4-weekly focus on a specific skill to allow staff/students to delve deeper into the specific steps. Our reward/report cards display the skill icons and students can clearly see what skill has been rewarded to them every lesson. Students who display/develop the most skills are given rewards in our weekly assemblies. This is also shared on social media so others can see how that child achieved their rewards. Skills are referenced in every assembly and parents' evenings. Assemblies have a theme where our staff link current events and their own experiences to the skills. Each department has their own scheme of work that links the skills to each topic taught. The skills are also embedded into our policies and on our website as we use these in everything we do. Our SEN department has worked with our students to create their own visual representation of the skills to help them identify them easier

Start early, keep going

Students spend two morning sessions per week working on their skills passport. Our programme is tailored to each year group based on self assessments they complete via Skills Builder Benchmark, which is completed alongside staff members. Our attendance team generates reports of session absence throughout the year. These reports inform our planning for the three drop-down days we create for students to catch up or enhance their skills throughout the year. We invite external agencies in to help staff with the sessions missed by those students. It also strengthens existing students skills seeing them in different contexts. We work with heads of department to ensure the missed skills are highlighted in their curriculum. We also have additional break sessions working on the skills for students who arrive late or miss the morning sessions.

Measure it

Through the reward system, students are able to see which areas they are working well at. Students can access their data via Class Charts, which allows them to see an up to date analysis of where they are performing well and where they need to develop further. All students across all key stages have undertaken a number of self assessments using Skills Builder Benchmark, which allows them to see which areas are secure and which need development. Staff have also identified, in their curriculum schemes of work, places where the skills are utilised in different units of work. We use formative assessment in classes and assemblies using mini-whiteboards. We ask students to provide answers on which skills describe the topics covered or what skills they used today or to reflect about their work placements. This use of formative assessment allows our staff to see build on the answers of our students. It provides an excellent level of engagement.

Focus tightly

Staff choose the skills and steps to teach their students in each lesson. They display visual aids that align effectively with broader learning objectives. Senior leaders regularly visit classes to ensure that skills are taught clearly and concisely. Our personal development lead analyses the data to ensure all skills are being consistently developed by all staff. Our schemes of work outline the necessary skills needed for each topic and what skill will be developed. We are currently creating individual lesson plans called know shows for each subject. These provide in-depth knowledge of skills students need to know and what skills they will show by the end of the lesson. Each lesson will have a minimum development focus of one skill and link it to the topic being taught. All staff have allocated times in their timetables to review/create the know shows and plan how they will teach/develop the skills within their lessons.

Keep practising

The UTC offers various extra-curricular activities that coincide with the essential skills. Each department runs an extra-curricular activity and links this to the skills students will use/develop during it. Our heads of department take lead on an individual skill to ensure we have 'skill champions' to give in-depth knowledge to the rest of the college. Each department has a scheme of work that embeds each of the skills. UTCW has partnered with various organisations such as Warrington Youth Zone. Here we deliver various extra-curricular opportunities with our students e.g. rock climbing, weight lifting, boxing, cooking, engineering. Our Staff supervise these and identify/reward the necessary skills via Class Charts. Each activity has a skills target set and students are taught how to achieve this. We record whether students met these targets and what step they achieved during their participation.

Bring it to life

We have regular employer engagement events for our students. Our employer partners work with us to talk about the skills and how they are used in their setting. Our employer partners help to create various work based projects with our students. These projects will include briefs that allow our students to identify and reflect on the skills that they will use. Each year we have a careers week. Here Y10 go on work experience and complete a reflection form on the skills they have used on their placement. Our sixth formers attend regular work placements to satisfy their T-level course. They will have a weekly professional briefing that allows them to share their experiences and skills used. Careers education runs across the whole college in and through our PSHCE programme. We have a wide variety of providers consisting of companies such banks, plumbers and nuclear decommissioning companies all facilitating project based learning.

What's next

Keeping this consistent will be a challenge as we take on students from Y10 so we only have a limited time of two to four years to improve their skills. Student buy in can be difficult when they first begin at the UTC, so it is crucial that we continue to explain the relevance of the skills and their benefits to our new students. In September we will invite new employers to the UTC and ensure they emphasize the importance of the skills so this is made clear to students from the beginning of term. Asking students to complete a benchmark assessment at the start of their transition in July will enable us to assess their level, and plan accordingly as our student intake is different each year. Ensuring we keep developing our skills champions will help give other staff and departments support as they will be able to pass on their expertise ensure workload is efficient. We would like to implement a more granular focus on the skills. For example, creating systems for staff to log skill progress at a step level. We also plan to set up regular feedback sessions for students to get their opinions on the accessibility of each skill.

North West England

United Kingdom

College

UTC Warrington