Prime Minister visits Gloucestershire University Technical College

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak MP toured workshops and took in student projects on a visit to SGS Berkeley Green UTC in Gloucestershire yesterday.

Joining the visit was Stroud MP Siobhan Baillie and former education secretary Lord Baker, who now chairs the Baker Dearing Educational Trust which supports England’s 44 University Technical Colleges (UTCs).

Sunak and Baillie were given a tour of the UTC by its Principal Gareth Lister and met students in the workshop and those working on digital technology projects.

The visit to SGS Berkeley Green was one of a series of visits the PM made in Gloucestershire today.

SGS Berkeley Green UTC is located on a site which is being sold by South Gloucestershire and Stroud College (SGS) to Chiltern Vital Group, which plans to turn the area into a cluster of companies developing technology for small modular reactors.

This is expected to be a boon for the UTC, a secondary school which delivers a technical education curriculum specialising in digital technologies, cyber security, and engineering – all vital to the development of nuclear technology.

Baker Dearing Educational Trust chief executive Simon Connell, who also attended the PM’s visit, commented afterwards:

“It was fantastic to welcome the Prime Minister and Siobhan Baillie MP to SGS Berkeley Green UTC. We know they enjoyed meeting staff and students and strengthening their understanding of what is being taught at the UTC.

“SGS Berkeley Green UTC is an excellent example of the high-quality industry-relevant education that the UTC programme delivers to young people. Each year, around a quarter of UTC leavers nationally progress onto apprenticeships, three-fifths of which are ‘Higher’ or degree-level.

“This success is built on strong employer partnerships and SGS Berkeley Green’s links with industry will only improve once this new cluster of nuclear technology firms is up and running.”