Speaking at the annual Duke of York Awards for Technical Education, the Duke of York said that an education gained at a University Technical College (UTC) provides young people with the greatest flexibility to cope with the “velocity of change” in the workplace.
He added that UTCs, which specialise ion vocational education and technical training for students aged 14 to 19, give pupils “the most useful knowledge” of any type of school.
During the ceremony, the Duke of York, who is patron of the Baker Dearing Educational Trust, which works to promote UTCs, handed out awards to students from five UTCs – Central Bedfordshire, Medway, Leigh, Oxfordshire and Reading.
Following the event, the Duke continued to speak passionately about the education UTCs provide, saying: “Engineering skills are some of the most important skills that we need in this country. Virtually everything requires an engineering skill of one sort or another.
“It doesn’t matter whether you are sitting behind a desk, or whether you are outside working on a pipeline. Everything requires some form of engineering skill.