Partners
What it means to be an Elutec partner
What is Elutec?
The East London University Technical College (Elutec) opened in September 2014 for 14 -19 year old students in East London and Essex. The aim is to inspire young people to become the next generation of talented Engineers and Designers through a really positive education experience which equips them with the skills, knowledge and personal qualities they need to have a successful career in industry. In order to deliver this, we are dependent upon the commitment of partners from industry who will help us to contextualise the curriculum and to give our students a real taste of industry so that they are prepared for the world of work.
Why should I be a partner?
Partnering Elutec gives you the opportunity to have a meaningful and effective input into the 14 -19 education experience of young people who are, potentially, your future recruits. If you have ever felt frustrated with young recruits not having the right attitude to hit the ground running or you have struggled to attract engineering talent to your organisation, working with Elutec gives you access to well-motivated young engineers who are already experiencing the working environment and developing the attitude and technical skills that will stand them head and shoulders above others of the same age.
Elutec has a commitment from a number of organisations and working with us provides an opportunity for all our partners to create or enhance relationships with each other whether they are SMEs or large multinationals such as Ford.
As a successful UTC Elutec attracts interest from national and local politicians along with the media. This will raise the profile of Elutec’s partners both as local employers and organisations of excellence.
We offer a ‘partner’ logo to be used by your organisation to identify your engagement with Elutec.
The Elutec curriculum
Our 14-16 year olds (Key Stage 4) will come to us to study for their GCSE and equivalent qualifications. All students will follow the same curriculum although those who are gifted and talented are more likely to take more examination courses than those who need support with their learning.
Students will follow up to 3 courses in engineering and design. These courses will each be worth one GCSE and will cover: product design, engineering design, manufacturing, practical electrics and mechanics, electronics and control systems. The engineering and design courses will be project based and the students will be challenged to solve real business problems. This is where our partners come in – we would like partners to help us to write these challenges and, whilst the students are completing these projects, to come in and support them with their work and decide how close they have come to solving the problems.
In addition, students will take core GCSEs in English language and literature, maths, physics, biology, chemistry, ICT, business and, for the most academically able, German. What is unique about the curriculum at Elutec is that the core subjects will not be taught in isolation. This means that every lesson a student attends will be linked to the engineering project they are completing.
Our 16-19 year olds will have a choice about the curriculum they follow. Most of them will complete an engineering BTEC L3 and, like the students in Key Stage 4, they will be challenged to solve real business problems in their project work. We are offering students the chance to resit GCSE qualifications if they haven’t done as well as they needed to and also, some students will take a more traditional path into engineering by studying A levels in maths and sciences.
Elutec students all work toward their skills competency award which assesses their use of the tools and equipment available to them as ‘able to use the equipment under supervision’, ‘unsupervised’ or ‘able to supervise others’.
Types of partnership
It is really important for us to work with our partners on both curriculum and personal development.
Challenge partner
In becoming a challenge partner you will be able to help shape the curriculum at Elutec. We can then ensure that our students are being trained in the skills that you tell us that they need. However, challenge partners will not be responsible for the quality of work that the students produce, marking any of their work, managing the behaviour of students or physically writing the challenges.
Once an organisation has agreed to be a challenge partner there will be some discussion about which project would be most suitable for your organisation to be involved with. This will depend upon the specialism of your organisation and the range of challenge partners that have already signed up. In order to write the challenge it will be necessary for one to two representatives from your organisation to attend a half day session where they will work with the engineering, science or computing team leaders and their staff. During this session the principles of the challenge or lesson support will be agreed as well as the time frame for the delivery of the project. Following the half-day session a visit to the partner’s business would be arranged to ascertain suitability for visits by Elutec students if this is part of the programme. We will stay in e-mail or video link contact for development of the programme.
Depending on the level of input you would like to give we will arrange delivery around your staff diaries and the facilities needed at school. Whether it is the lecture theatre or any of the technical rooms, a timetable will be agreed well in advance. The level of engagement is dependent upon the availability of your organisation.
We understand however, that these ‘Challenge Partnerships’ do involve a level of commitment that not everyone can make and we would value the opportunity to engage with your company within the parameters you set.
Enterprise Partner
Other ways of working with us would be to offer activities and engagement opportunities between your business and our students through some of the following;
- be a guest speaker and talk about your business and personal experience
- act as a customer in role plays
- offer work placements, work shadowing and internships
- mentor a student or students
- sponsor an award
- judge an engineering competition
- help students to prepare for assessment centres or interviews for university
- supply equipment and/or equipment specific training
- support our extra-curricular activities
- provide business advisors for our Young Enterprise competition
- allow participation in company training programmes
- case studies for individuals, products or systems
Or anything else you feel would enhance and benefit the experience of our students.
Advertising
We would also like to include your logo on various outreach literature we provide if you are comfortable with that. It would be a way of extending awareness of your company and its engagement with the school.
I would like to know more?
If you feel you would like to know more about Elutec please take a look at our website. www.elutec.co.uk We would value the opportunity to meet you at one of the events that are publicised on the site. If you would like to work with us either as a ‘Challenge’ or ‘Enterprise’ partner or in some other way please contact our partnership engagement team. In the first instance please call Mrs Jan Tricks on 0203 773 4670 [email protected] or our Vice Principal Rob Bristow on the same number or by email at [email protected]
I look forward to working with you in the future.
Ruth Umerah
Principal
To down load a copy of this leaflet please click this link.
