The future is BTECs

BTECs are long established and well recognised career-focused qualifications that support students of all ages to progress to skilled work and to higher technical education. They are developed in partnership with employers and HEIs to ensure they give students the knowledge, skills and behaviours they need to progress.

Pearson worked with eleven employer and employer representatives, ten partner providers and seven higher education institutions (HEIs) from across the country to develop career-focused BTECs in Advanced Manufacturing Engineering. Employer partnerships ensure the BTECs qualify students for skilled work, and give them the transferable skills they need to succeed and progress in a broad range of roles.

The BTEC also forms part of the Engineering Technician Apprenticeship. It supports apprentices, where a place is available, and counts towards an apprenticeship where a student secures a place after qualifying. The partnerships are ongoing to ensure the qualification evolves to meet future technology and job requirements.

Higher education partnerships ensure the BTECs provide students with a foundation for further study should they wish to develop their knowledge and skills via HE. Pearson have worked with UCAS to secure tariff points for the qualifications, and partner providers have worked with their respective HEIs to secure agreements that allow students to progress. Birmingham Metropolitan College for example worked with BMW and Oxford Brookes University to secure a pathway to higher technical education in mechanical, electrical, electronic or automotive engineering.

Almost 2,500 students have started this suite of qualifications in the last two years. 350 have completed so far and have progressed into employment, higher and degree apprenticeships within their companies, or higher education programmes such as HNCs, foundation and undergraduate degrees in a variety of engineering subjects such as mechanical, electrical, electronic and automotive engineering.

“As a qualification it has excellent pathways that have sufficient content to meet the requirements of all the employers we work with. It is us all working together to get what the employers need that makes the qualification good.” – James McCartney, IPS International, a private training provider

A current student on the BTEC in Advanced Manufacturing Engineering said: “The course is helping me to plan out my future career in an informed way. The first year is general engineering and not specific to electrical or mechanical. This has taught me that I am better at the mechanical engineering and prefer it to electrical. Visits to a variety of different universities and employers has allowed me to investigate different routes and where they would lead to in the future.”