IoTs: Changing the Landscape
The Institutes of Technology (IoT) network embodies everything that technical education reforms are intended to achieve: uniting education and employers; developing education that aligns to local and regional skills requirements; providing further and higher technical education, addressing diversity in the STEM workforce and growing the technical STEM talent pipeline. The first wave of twelve IoTs are approaching their third birthday but, of course, their early years have been overshadowed – and complicated – by Covid.
The South West IoT (SWIoT) had its formal launch celebrated by all in the IoT Network and beyond in the House of Lords on Monday 21 March 2022: we caught up with Steve Mariadas, Director of the South West Institute of Technology, to see how it went and to reflect on the first three years of the IoT’s operation.
IoTs embody much of what the College Commissions ‘College of the Future’ report recommended for the future of the Further Education sector in their 2020 report by “backing business, driving innovation and addressing skills gaps” [Ref 1].
SWIoT is a partnership between further education providers, universities, local enterprise partnerships and authorities, employers and other stakeholders across Devon and Cornwall with specialisms across digital, advanced engineering, manufacturing, data science, nuclear and marine. Each IoT has a different range of specialisms, reflecting industrial and future skills requirements in its locality. Steve explains the rationale for the South West’s specialisms:
“Here in the South West, we're keen to promote the fact that we are world class with our partners in the Met Office in data science. We also have the only new-build nuclear sites in Europe at the moment in Hinkley Point C, so we developing our capacity in terms of nuclear engineering and nuclear power, and we see that fitting into the wider green and renewable energy sectors as well. We also specialize with our coastline on marine engineering. So, with our partners, Babcock in Davenport, Plymouth we work to address skills needs and building in shipbuilding ship refurbishment and submarines. Some of which have nuclear reactors in.”
Explore an interactive map of existing IoT locations and specialisms here.
Covid hasn’t hampered the success of the IoT’s early years:
“We've seen [Covid and lockdowns] as our opportunity to put into place these new facilities. So the building work still happened, the new equipment has still been purchased and these facilities are now open and we're ready for business.”
And business has started well. Steve cites an example from the South West IoTs data science provision:
“The unique thing that IoTs bring is this working together with employers. We've actually worked directly with our employers looking at their needs, designing courses, specific to their employees.
“We opened up an offer to Babcock where we said ‘we can take 150 learners and we'll teach them some data science. What happened was we had 333 people apply for the course in the space of weeks. The feedback's been amazing and we're going to carry on running that course throughout the rest of the year so that we can promote data science skills to as many people as we possibly can.”
IoTs and the STEM talent pipeline
IoTs also have a role in building the talent pipeline into science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) that we’ve considered in TCOP before. As Steve says:
“We're building upon a foundation where our world class colleges already have links into schools and careers education advice and guidance, and therefore promoting widely that you don't have to take traditional subjects to have a great career, particularly within digital engineering. It's more about technical vocational skills. We're really excited that all of our colleges are providing T levels, making the most of the T Level Professional Development on offer through the Education and Training Foundation and the opportunities they provide to show learners a progression path that may or may not be university: T Levels and apprenticeships are opportunities to take on and learn real world skills that can lead to higher technical study and employment.”
“Another thing we found incredibly useful was a summer school bringing in 14, 15, 16 year-olds and giving them experience of these new skills, particularly in data, but also across the digital spectrum and in engineering. Hands on sessions, getting involved and actually experimenting with things brings to life the opportunities that higher technical offers them and, most importantly for our region, lets promote the career paths that are going to be part of our future.”
“We want to make sure that we're supporting individuals to aspire to careers that are going to be in existence in five, ten, 15 years’ time, addressing the current and future needs of individuals, industry and the communities that we serve.”
Emerging Skills Project
IoTs are also at the heart of the Emerging Skills Project (ESP) – a pilot programme just completed – which brings “the technological and industrial know-how of the HVM Catapult (as a Centre of Innovation) to understand the future skills needed for UK manufacturing” [Ref 2]. The ESP is a great example of the two-way exchange between education and industry that allows IoTs, as centres of research, innovation and excellence, to contribute to industrial upskilling:
“Our work on the emerging skills projects with the High Value Manufacturing Catapult is looking at cutting-edge skills that even leading employers may not know about yet. We're talking about the real research end of what's happening out there in manufacturing and what’s really exciting is the sheer breadth of topics that they're covering.
“We're particularly strong on data science, but we've learnt more about applying that through industrial digitization. We've also seen the latest skills required for additive manufacturing and an area that excites a lot of people is automotive electrification, where this move towards electric cars and the changes that are going to be made are not just with manufacturers but with your local garages and how they will have to service cars.”
In the next edition of TCOP we’ll hear from Ken Johnson – a lecturer at Bridgwater and Taunton College – about his work on the ESP and how he’s bringing it back to the South West IoT and its employer partners.
IoTs: a launchpad
Michelle Donelan, Minister of State for Higher and Further Education spoke at the delayed launch of the SWIoT on 21 March 2022 at the House of Lords, attended by representatives of twelve existing IoTs, and nine that will launch later this year. Having seen – and created – change in the South West, Steve’s highly confident in the IoT model:
“There's no doubt that IoTs are changing the landscape for technical education. Having facilities and buildings to put a big shiny badge on is impressive and people can ‘see’ that. But what we find is that IoTs are bringing the focus onto people so that they can see and feel what higher technical education and training is. When you walk around the IoT facilities, you look at the classrooms, the labs, the industry standard equipment, that's very, very different to looking at a web page or looking at a prospectus. So having these buildings and having IoTs as a badge of reputation and quality is making a huge difference.”
We’re still at an early stage in the journey of IoTs, but their impact has been impressive. Already they are supporting the pipeline of learners into higher technical education and employment, addressing the ‘missing middle’ of technical qualifications at levels 4 and 5, raising the profile of high-quality technical education in their localities, addressing skills gaps and supporting employers to ready their workforce for the future.
The Technical Community of Practice will keep you informed about the success and development of IoTs – and the learning that they generate – as the second wave rolls out in the coming year.