The creation of a University Technical College in Scarborough will be of enormous benefit to local engineering companies, according to one of the project’s backers —tube-bending machine manufacturer and software provider Unison Ltd.
Peter Wilkinson, executive director of Unison and chairman of Scarborough’s Business Ambassadors Forum, said: “For as long as Unison has been in existence, we have struggled to find the technical staff that we need to grow. The same situation applies to virtually every other engineering company in this area.
I know that most of our local engineering businesses could expand by 10% or more almost instantly, if we had a pool of local engineering talent. The new UTC will lay the groundwork to help realise this ambition, bringing enormous opportunity to the area.”
The new UTC will cater primarily for 14- to 18-year-olds, with a focus on courses promoting careers in the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths). It is hoped that up to 800 college places could be offered to students, starting from September 2016.
Mr Wilkinson added: “Up to now, Scarborough alone has struggled to achieve the ‘critical mass’ required to sustain itself as a successful regional centre for engineering. The Scarborough UTC gives us the chance to become a regional ‘hot-spot’ for technology companies — embracing communities from Whitby to Bridlington to Driffield and beyond — and to help existing employers to grow, while attracting new businesses to set up in the area.”