Firstly a disclaimer - this will sound very much like a sales pitch, but I have no relationship with the organisation in question.
I found myself invited at short notice yesterday to attend a launch event for
Heathrow University Technology College - very very new, insofar as they don't seem to have finished building it yet and won't have any students for nearly a year.
I went prepared to be cynical, but was actually very very impressed. The basic model is a college for 14-18 year olds, providing a roughly 50:50 mix of classroom and practical experience, oriented around aviation. They're obviously aiming to a large extent at creating young people well fitted to, for example, enter apprenticeships, but also making sure they equip those it would suit, to go to university.
They've got BA and Virgin backing (a very rare occasion of those two agreeing on something), as well as the RAF, BAA, a good engineering university and an HE college - pretty much a full set in other words. My feeling also was that they've appointed pretty much a perfect principal to get it right: an ex-RAF aircraft technician, turned physics teacher, turned science educator: he impressed me. And a purpose built building, which looks very much like a dream apprentice training school.
The syllabus they showed looks remarkably what I remember as an RAE Farnborough apprentice back when Pontious was a Pilot. And that was a place that generated a few talented individuals (and me, but we won't go there). Apparently it will be non-selective, apart from some demonstrable interest in aviation - whether that's a mistake or not remains to be seen.
Website here:
Heathrow Aviation Engineering - University Technical College
Their catchment is roughly an 8 mile radius of LHR, and their first intake is next September. My feeling is that there are a lot of people living and working around LHR (and I'd guess that covers a fair number of people on this forum) who could do far worse than point their sons and daughters in that general direction for a look. Everything tells me this is going to be something quite special.