Get Involved

Engaging with employers is central to the ethos UTC Leeds and we are constantly seeking to encourage more interaction between students and the region’s engineering and technology-based businesses. Sharing your knowledge and experience will not only help students with their studies, but will also increase their understanding of what people in your industry actually do and the breadth of opportunities available. At the same time, you gain the benefit of working with talented and enthusiastic young people.

How to get involved

There are many ways to get involved:

• Provide a project for students to work on
• Offer a visit to your business
• Offer work experience
• Run a masterclass related to a project or a specific aspect of your business
• Mentor a student or a group of students
• Support one of our open events to talk to students and parents
• Tell your colleagues and business networks about the UTC
• Feature a profile about UTC on your website or in your staff newsletter
• Join us for our annual mock interview day 

Provide a project

Our curriculum is built around projects, as well as traditional classroom learning. We can offer you unrivalled opportunities for you to identify future talent and guide our pupils so that they understand the traits which industry values; in turn, the projects you provide will form part of the qualification they are studying. You just need to have a project idea, related to your business, which supports our teaching objectives. We will design the project with you and manage it. The project could solve a real problem for you and your business, or could be focused on designing a new product or service. You can see examples of this below:

• Supply of oil to gear units at Siemens Mechanical Drives
• Designing flat panel loudspeaker technology at Sound Leisure

Host a visit

We want to ensure that students experience the workplace to see exactly how industry works. Trips can be anything from a one-hour tour to a full day with on-site activities and the opportunity to meet and speak with different staff. If you think you can offer any of these, please let us know so we can discuss how this fits with our curriculum. Visits aim to reinforce classroom learning objectives and showcase future opportunities and can be tailored to ensure both your company and our students gain maximum benefit.

Offer work experience

We work with you to match students to opportunities you could offer for work experience from short, week-long work placements on site through to longer summer placements. This is a great way to benefit from fresh ideas in your business and provides CPD opportunities for your staff to host and mentor our students.

Offer masterclasses or workshops

We want our students, your future workforce, to have access to the latest industry thinking, so our aim is to ensure that students have regular opportunities to hear from employers, through workshops and masterclasses, to enhance and contextualise classroom learning. We would agree a brief with you and manage the session.

Engage your staff in mentoring

We arrange opportunities for employers to discuss with students their aspirations, employment prospects, studies or industry queries. Mentoring is a great way to see what students are doing and guide them on the right pathways to becoming industry professionals. Mentoring is also a great way of building the communication skills of your staff as they interact with our next generation of talent and are exposed to fresh ideas.

Spread the word

We hope that you will wish to share information about the UTC with your staff, partners and networks. We can provide you with a Communications Pack, which includes our logo and standard descriptions, for use on your website and in your newsletters.

Benefits for your business

Why should your company be involved?

University Technical Colleges provide a truly innovative and much needed approach to blending vocational and technical education, bringing industry and education together to ensure young people are learning the technical and professional skills that the UK economy needs. UTC Leeds is committed to technical excellence and meeting the needs of the region’s engineering, manufacturing and hi-tech sectors.

This is a chance to get involved in equipping young people with the skills your business needs to grow.

What are the key benefits?

• Shape the skills that are taught so that our young people will be your work-ready recruits
• Save on recruitment costs as the UTC offers access to a ready stream of talented young people able to take up your apprenticeship opportunities.
• Spot talented individuals who would be ideal for your university sponsorship or degree apprenticeship opportunities
• Get fresh ideas from young minds on your business challenges
• Gain access to high quality, industry-standard equipment that you may not have in your business
• Showcase your brand to parents and young people across Leeds City Region, as well as all the key partners and supporters of UTC Leeds
• Join our network of employers and academic partners

For more information please contact Neil Copsey or Jolene Ratcliffe via email [email protected] / [email protected]