Why the Government should bring a new apprentice school to Harlow

During a special Commons debate last night I underlined the case for Harlow to have a university Technical College.

Although university technology colleges have not yet received the same media attention as free schools and the huge expansion of the academy programme, they are an equally profound reform of our school system.

Already 18 UTCs have received Government support . They are being supported by some 130 companies. Government funding has been allocated for 24 UTCs.

I hope that a Harlow bid will be successful in the next wave.

Harlow is a new town. It was built after the Second World War with a vision to change people’s lives and create jobs and growth, but its potential is still unfulfilled.

School results have risen sharply over the past ten years. Most secondary schools now perform around the national average and this year two secondary schools became academies.

Harlow College is now widely recognised as one of the best further education colleges in the country, with pass rates exceeding 99.5 per cent.

Anglia Ruskin university opened in the town this term a campus, which now has approximately 200 students studying for degrees.

Wherever I go in Harlow parents are delighted with the idea of a new apprentice school which is exactly what it is, and they have no ideological objections.

Harlow’s bid for a UTC is not opposed by the local state schools and both Harlow Council and Essex County Council have said they support UTCs, and would like to see a UTC in Harlow.

A Harlow bid for a UTC will now feature the enterprise zone status which has been given to the town.

Anglia Ruskin is broadening its university courses to meet the needs of the emerging ‘MedTech’ enterprise zone with firms like Bupa Home Healthcare. Harlow Council is delivering the proposed ‘MedTech’ campus - a specialised industrial estate, which will employ the highly skilled technicians that a UTC provides.

Harlow already has several biotech and pharmaceutical firms, such as GlaxoSmithKline, and is in the London-Cambridge science corridor.

We have several strong local hospitals - primarily Princess Alexandra Hospital and the Rivers private hospital in Sawbridgeworth.

The Health Protection Agency is considering a move to Harlow, partly because of its own financial position, and partly because of the enterprise zone. I hope that in due course it too will have a need for medical technicians and engineers.

In the second wave of UTC applications we hope to include medical technology as one of the Harlow specialisms, and to submit an even stronger bid.