51����

The education providers whose proposals to set up Institutes of Technology (IoT) are moving forward to the final stage of the government’s competition have been announced.

Further education colleges are named in 13 out of the 16 proposals which have made it to this stage.

The Department for Education says IoTs will offer top-quality training and apprenticeships in higher-level technical skills – A level equivalent up to degree level and above – helping to bridge a vital skills gap in the economy in areas like advanced manufacturing, infrastructure and digital.

Manifesto pledge

In their 2017 general election manifesto, the Conservative Party said its aim was to establish an IoT “in every major city in England”. The manifesto also said IoTs “will enjoy the freedoms that make our universities great”, including eligibility for public funding for productivity and skills research, access to loans and grants for their students and being able to gain royal charter status and regius professorships in technical education.

The new institutes were first set out in the government’s Fixing the Foundations productivity plan in 2015.

Last year a DfE public policy document said the government expected FE colleges to play a major role in IoTs “given their expertise in meeting employer needs and the partnerships they have established with employers, [local enterprise partnerships] and combined authorities through the area review process.”

The IoT proposals moving forward are:

• Barking and Dagenham College
• Dudley College of Technology
• Harrow and Uxbridge Colleges
• Milton Keynes College
• New College, Durham
• Newcastle College Group
• North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College
• Queen Mary University London 
• Solihull College
• South Essex College of Further and Higher Education
• Swindon College
• University of Exeter
• University of Lincoln
• West Suffolk College
• Weston College of Further and Higher Education
• York College