September 2026 marked ten years since UTC South Durham first opened its doors. We marked the anniversary with events bringing together partners including the business and industry leaders who’ve supported us over the decade, Edge Foundation – who played a key role in founding the UTC movement and our local MP. Our guest of honour, Lord Baker, hosted and spoke at one of the events, recalling in detail how each UTC was established. We also commissioned three short films about our UTC.
The anniversary gives us a chance to reflect on what’s coming. It’s an interesting landscape. Andy Burnham’s announcement of 14-16 education reforms is positive for technical education overall, but poses a potential challenge for UTCs. Why would a child leave school for a technical college if they could soon be offered technical education where they already are? UTC South Durham’s strength has always been our positive destinations and low-to-no NEET figures. This is no mean feat considering our students arrive aged 14, sometimes with a reading age of five, giving us eighteen months to prep them for GCSEs. It’s partly why we’re consulting to take a Year 9 intake from 2028. This would give us Years 9 and 10 to get students ‘UTC-ready’ before embedding the same mature, professional approach that we always do through GCSEs and beyond in Years 11 to 13.
UTC South Durham is a specialist technical college, but our success comes much less from what we teach and far more from our culture, which we’ve developed over a decade-long journey. During that time we took part in the Edge Future Learning pilot, launched and showcased our student leaver profile (SLP) and invested in our leadership development. We’re now launching SLP 2.0, updating the original with a greater focus on students’ attitudes – to themselves, to others, and to work; both in school and future employment. Our aim is to help young people across the North East feel accepted in school, giving them the structures and realism they need to fulfil their ambitions.
UTC South Durham is now in a position to support and encourage other schools on employer engagement and careers. I’m currently working with the Baker Dearing Trust to help schools that have opted for new 'UTC sleeves' within secondary schools, which will introduce specialist technical pathways in areas like engineering or digital. Participating schools will soon understand that tying existing provision to a new technical offer requires genuine innovation and culture change and that it takes time. It’s my job to help head teachers and deputies take that opportunity. Young people, their expectations, and society have all changed and we must flex with them. More widely, UTC South Durham supports change through Edge’s Deeper Learning UK (DLUK) Network.
At our last gathering, Deeper Learning UK was described as a “Rebel Alliance” – ordinary people doing extraordinary things and pushing against the grain for their communities.
We recently hosted an ambitious group of multi-academy trust CEOs who’ve agreed to collaborate rather than compete to support young people. While I’m as eager as anyone for change, I found myself telling them to slow down and think carefully about what they’re doing and how and why. Being part of a network like this means learning from each other. But it's so reassuring to see the appetite for change is real. UTC South Durham had the privilege of starting from scratch rather than retrofitting new approaches into an existing setup. But we still faced our challenges. Today, as 14-16 reforms take shape, I’m proud to say we’re ten years strong and still getting young people into great destinations. Sharing how we do that will be a big part of our future. And in another ten years I’m confident we’ll still be putting young people and their destinations and communities at the heart of technical education. Let’s hope that’ll be the norm across mainstream education, too.
Ten years of UTC South Durham. The beginning How UTC South Durham was conceived, founded and built, from hooves on the ground to boots and bricks and mortar.
Ten years of UTC South Durham. Our alumni There wouldn't be a UTC without the enthusiasm, abilities and support of the students. Our alumni are really at the heart of our story.
Ten years of UTC South Durham. The future Looking at what the future holds for UTC South Durham as it expands upwards and outwards and continues to give young adults the best possible start and prepare them for life and work after education.
Written by
Catherine Purvis-Mawson, Deputy Principal, UTC South Durham