University Technical Colleges: Pedagogy Meets Market Demands

There is growing global interest in how countries help prepare young people for participation in the world of work. In seeking to understand the relationship between schooling and ‘readiness’ for work this paper examines University Technical College (UTC) leaders’ perceptions when operating in a ‘demand-led’ quasi-market system in England. Key findings highlight the complexity and interrelatedness of the perceived competitive environment, populated by a range of pressures, tensions, and challenges. Despite working in a ‘messy’ culture and environment, these leaders continued to believe in the technical education on offer, and its value in meeting students’ needs. Many students across the research sample had broadly similar profiles, leading to suggestions that some UTCs may operate, inadvertently, as a form of social segregation. A salient finding was the effectiveness of the quasi-market to generate perceptions of competition between providers, irrespective of a UTC’s ‘niche’ technical education offer, the valued knowledge exchange between sponsors and students, the state of the art buildings and industry standard equipment, and employer demand for a skilled workforce