Employer-led school celebrates 10 years of partnership with region’s leading businesses

An employer-led school is celebrating a decade of working closely with many of Hull and East Yorkshire’s leading businesses.

2025 marks 10 years since Ron Dearing University Technical College (UTC) in Hull was given the green light by the then Chancellor George Osborne. Since then, the school and its Employer Partners have equipped many hundreds of young people with the skills they need to thrive in the world of work. 

The anniversary was marked at an employer breakfast event, when school staff and representatives from the partner companies and organisations celebrated the UTC’s successes, including recently retaining its Ofsted Outstanding status. 

The idea of an business-led school in Hull was the brainchild of then MP for Hull West and Hessle, Alan Johnson, who is now Ron Dearing UTC’s Patron, and the project was driven forward by business leaders, including Charlie Spencer OBE, Executive Chairman of Hull-based engineering company Spencer Group, and Finbarr Dowling, who was then Project Director for Siemens Gamesa in Hull.  

The school opened in September 2017 and has since welcomed over 2,000 students. 

The school offers students a unique way to learn, giving them the edge in the competition for in-demand apprenticeships and university places. Since the school opened, 60% of students have gone on to university, while 40% have secured apprenticeships – 80% of these in the school’s priority sectors, including engineering, digital technology and creative digital. 

Ron Dearing UTC now has more than 60 Employer Partners who work alongside the school’s experienced teaching staff to equip students with the skills, qualifications and maturity required by leading businesses and vital to supporting the growth of the region’s economy.  

The Employer Partners are led by Founding Partners KCOM, Reckitt, Siemens Gamesa, Smith+Nephew and Spencer Group who, together with lead education partner, the University of Hull, have worked closely with the school from day one.

Over the past 18 months alone, the UTC has welcomed 14 new Employer Partners from both the private and public sectors, such as BAE Systems, Associated British Ports, Centrica, East Riding of Yorkshire Council and Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

Senior Assistant Principal Glenn Jenson said: “It has been a pleasure to work closely with some of the biggest businesses in our region to provide Hull’s young people with a unique learning environment that equips them with the skills and tools they need to thrive in employment. 

“Over the past 10 years we’ve developed a curriculum that combines exciting and relevant qualifications with project-based learning and high-value workplace experiences to really set them apart.”

Charlie Spencer OBE, Founding Chair of Governors of Ron Dearing UTC and Executive Chairman of Founding Partner Spencer Group, said: “The school has been an absolutely outstanding success, delivering on its objective to produce young people with the skills, qualifications, maturity and aptitude to thrive in the world of work.

“Critical to that success has been the role of the Employer Partners, who support the school through additional funding, curriculum design and delivery, mentorship, student projects and apprenticeships. Ron Dearing is truly an employer-led school.”