Express & Star

First glimpse of new £10m West Bromwich health college

The walls are up at the Health Futures UTC in West Bromwich – a £10 million college which aims to solve a healthcare skills shortage.

Published

Principal Robert Fell says he took the job in January because it was clear to him there was a shortage of qualified healthcare professionals coming from the West Midlands.

He said he had witnessed for a long time the gulf between the skills employers were seeking and the skills of pupils leaving school.

The answer, he hopes, is the university technical college in High Street which will open its doors to 300 pupils from September.

Quantity surveyor Matt McDonagh looks out over the site

Teenagers seeking a career in healthcare or health sciences will receive a hands-on education which bids to expose them to real-life situations wherever possible.

Students will be placed in a 4D 'visualisation suite' which can be used to imitate extreme environments such as car crashes or an operating theatre.

Images are projected onto three walls and different scents can be added to recreate reality wherever possible.

A view into what will become the gym at the new £10m college

From there a mock patient can be transferred through to the college's own ambulance located just metres away.

Following the scenario through, pupils will experience treatment in a hospital setting in a simulated ward and can be thrown a few curve balls by staff in the overlooking control room.

Students will also be taught about public and community health. Mr Fell describes it as the 'full healthcare experience'.

He said: "As part of the curriculum here we will deliver technical challenges, that is scenarios which have been written by our employer partners to track a patient from the initial stimulus be that an accident or an illness.

"These scenarios have been written so students gain the skills and experience they will need to take up roles in the health service and so they gain an understanding of the careers available.

"They will see a bit more behind the curtain than what they might see on TV.

"And they will see what roles are really like rather than the ones they might see in popular culture."

From 2016 the college will have 600 students aged between 14 to19 who will study for GCSE and A-level qualifications alongside health-focused study and work experience.

It will have its own lecture theatre, gym, garden and study space for up to 150 of the pupils to use in their free periods.

There is even a rooftop games area allowing students to play five-a-side football and cricket in their urban surroundings. Mr Fell, aged 43, added: "For a very small site we have got very good facilities. The key bit of our offer is not just to say we are specialist but we also want our students to be well qualified when they leave us.

"We have a very clear focus on the sciences, being a health and health science UTC, but we will also be teaching other academic subjects and making sure whatever students finally aspire to do they are qualified enough to go and do it."

The UTC is sponsored by the University of Wolverhampton, the West Midlands Ambulance Service, the Midcounties Co-operative Pharmacy, amongst 23 employer and educational partners including NHS Foundation Trusts in the Black Country and Birmingham. Mr Fell, who previously taught at Wood Green School in Wednesbury and Mirus Academy in Walsall, said without their support the project would not have got off the ground.

Students will be expected to work longer hours than a normal school day and fit in an average of one day work experience each week. But Mr Fell believes the students will be able to meet the high standards expected.

He added: "It will be challenging. There is no denying students who want to be successful have to work hard but we have got such a fantastic group who have already applied and I am very confident they will be up for the challenge of doing as well as they possibly can.

"I think students understand if they want to go on to do medicine they need to be performing at the absolute top level academically, and that is what we hope to deliver."

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.