Since I started teaching in 1995, I’ve sat through Inset days that would probably make even the most enthusiastic of NQTs gnaw off their own legs in boredom. Many hours of listening to endless policy announcements, promises that “this year is going to be better”, booklets full of results analysis, slideshows full of the lessons learned from the deputy’s mindfulness holiday in France and so on.
When I took up my post as principal at Humber University Technical College (UTC) this summer, I thought very carefully about how I would induct my staff - new and old - in their understanding of the unique nature of our UTC, the needs of the students and the direction we are travelling.
It was important to me that if staff were to share the vision, they needed to share an understanding of the Humber UTC talent pipeline that we are creating. Surely that couldn’t be difficult? One thing that was at the front of my mind was that I knew that whatever I did in the first week would set the tone for the year for my staff and students. No zombie Inset day sessions for me!
As an engineering UTC, we specialise in the digital technology, manufacturing and processing areas of the industry. We are lucky to have very strong partnerships with local, national and global companies who are keen to support our students in their career choices. Our mantra is “put yourself at the front of the queue” and our job is to make sure we give our students every chance to be the next engineering apprentice or sought after university student. Quite a job.
So how could I make my vision come alive? How could I avoid being the principal that sends his staff to sleep? With so many industry links, it didn’t take long to plan our first “Outset day”. Along with my newly appointed business engagement leader, we spoke to two of our partner companies - Phillips 66, which runs the Humber Oil Refinery, and Cristal, a local chemical plant - about running a training day with a difference. At the start of term, that’s exactly what we did.
On the buses
Our visit began with a short coach trip to the two sites, reminiscent of Only Fools and Horses’ “The Jolly Boys’ Outing”. Staff were greeted by senior executives of both companies - it’s obvious that they take the relationship as seriously as we do - and we were taken to the boardroom for a brilliant presentation about the companies’ ethos and journeys.
Health and safety training is a crucial aspect of life at a plant and we were given an insight into what a new apprentice has to go through before they can step on site. Staff were then given a tour of the sites by passionate leaders, bringing alive the story of the jobs that exist and the skills needed to work for the organisation.
After lunch we travelled back to the UTC to discuss what we had learned about the visit and how we could bring that alive in our own values and the way we work. It wasn’t just my engineering staff who had their minds opened either. Staff from all areas were able to weave nuggets from the morning into their teaching.
Since the start of the school term, staff have used what they learned on the day to make the connections between the curriculum that they are teaching and the world of work. Our Spanish teacher is developing a programme of study using our own mini-automated processing plant, the geography department have linked their curriculum delivery to the sustainability of the coking process and our engineering team are developing extended projects to teach students about health and safety in the workplace.
As a result of the training, I have overhauled the appraisal policy, so that all of my staff are held accountable for their ability to weave employability skills into their teaching. We have also borrowed the workplace safety handbooks from industry to improve our risk assessment policy.
Humber UTC’s inaugural Outset day has made my job far easier than if I had stood up for four hours in front of staff and showed 1970s public information films on health and safety and redrafts of the UTC no smoking policy. Our day in industry was the best training day I’ve ever been involved in and I’m confident that my staff now truly understand what they are here to do.
I believe that headteachers should seize opportunities like we have at Humber UTC, because industry is desperate to work out how it is going to fill the impending skills gap as their ageing work force comes to retirement. Think about the impact of what you want to achieve and you can’t go wrong.
Marc Doyle is principal of Humber UTC
