THE MANAGING director of a Malvern manufacturer has welcomed plans to create a new technical college, which he believed could ‘transform the town’s economy’.
Business partners in Worcestershire are considering applying for Government funding to build a new university technical college (UTC) in the county, which would teach science, technology, engineering and maths subjects to young people aged between 14 and 19.
Malvern-based Morgan Motor Cars, QinetiQ and Malvern Instruments have been involved in the project along with Worcester Bosch and Yamazaki Mazak and will now be looking to get more people behind their bid.
Speaking to The Observer, Paul Walker, managing director of Malvern Instruments, felt the college would help the town retain and inspire budding young engineers.
“We employed 120 people at Malvern Instruments 20 years ago and now we employ 1,000, with nearly 400 of those coming from the town,” he said.
“There are some really good quality businesses here and many smaller ones which want to grow, so this college could be a catalyst to give these people a career in engineering and manufacturing.
“This could also transform the local economy. If you look at schools in the region, they are very good, but the problem is students are going off to university in far-flung places when we should be encouraging them to work closer to home.”
He said he was also confident the UTC would go a long way to getting rid of the ‘second best’ stigma attached to technical colleges.
“I spent a lot of time in Germany, China and Japan and in those countries the idea of being an engineer is a real mark of success,” he said.
“In the UK, engineering still suffers from this dreadful concept that if you come out of schools and if you can’t do anything else you become an engineer.
“The UTC idea will not just produce better quality apprentice engineers, it will also raise the calibre of the engineering profession and that is our long-term objective.”
The five businesses will now work with Worcestershire County Council and the Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership to find out whether there is a need for an UTC in the county.
A feedback survey and more information can be found at www.worcestershire.gov.uk/UTCworcestershire and is open until the end of July.
