Aston University Engineering Academy is a university technical college (UTC) that opened in September 2012 in the Gosta Green area of Birmingham, West Midlands, England. Aston University is the lead academic sponsor of the UTC, along with the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network. Business partners of Aston University Engineering Academy include E.ON, Goodrich Corporation, National Grid plc, PTC and the Royal Air Force. The new purpose-built school building of the UTC is located at the edge of the Aston University campus. Admissions Aston University Engineering Academy has an initial intake of students aged 14 and 16 (academic years 10 and 12) in 2012, but will expand to accommodate students aged 14 to 19 over the following two years. The schools catchment area covers the entirety of the Birmingham metropolitan borough. Description Aston University Engineering Academy takes pupils from Year 10. It specialises in engineering and associated work-related learning. At key stage 4, pupils undertake a vocational curriculum alongside an academic GCSE curriculum. At key stage 5, most pupils undertake a BTEC extended diploma and a single A level. The school did not meet the government's current floor standard, the minimum standard for pupils’ progress at the end of key stage 4, when the school was inspected in 2018. Aston University Engineering Academy specialises in different aspects of engineering. Pupils aged 14 to 16 study a core selected number of GCSEs along with either a Higher Diploma in Engineering or BTEC First Diploma in Engineering. For sixth form education, students can choose between four study programmes: An Advanced Diploma in Engineering and an additional A Level BTEC National Diploma in Engineering and an additional A Level Mathematics and Science A levels programme Apprenticeships The school has struggled to find and retain teacher. It needs teachers who have deep specialist knowledge in areas where there is a national teacher shortage, to work with youngsters who have in the main had a disrupted past. Some youngsters still have some catching up to do following the previous turbulence. Teaching is not yet consistently strong enough to counter the historical issues and the turbulence encountered by the students. The students are in the main cooperative and proud of their school. The building The academy building is a new-build scheme, built on the site of a former manufacturing facility demolished many years before. It backs onto the Grand Union Canal and is opposite Faraday Wharf,