The Baker Dearing Educational Trust (abbreviated as the Baker Dearing Trust or BDT) is a UK-based registered charity established to support, advocate and develop

university technical college A university technical college (UTC) is a type of specialist secondary school in England that is led by a sponsor university and has close ties to local business and industry. These university and industry partners support the curriculum developm ...

s (UTCs) in England. An official partnership with the

Department for Education The Department for Education (DfE) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for child protection, child services, education (compulsory, further and higher education), apprenticeships and wider skills in England. A Department ...

has been made for this purpose. All schools with UTC status must have a licence agreement with the BDT as it is the creator and owner of the UTC model, trademarks and brand. This agreement is fulfilled via a license fee.

History

Lords Kenneth Baker and Ronald Dearing conceptualised the UTC in 2009 and established the trust in the same year. Baker had previously served as

Secretary of State for Education The secretary of state for education, also referred to as the education secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department for Education. ...

from 1986 to 1989, during which time he introduced the

National Curriculum A national curriculum is a common programme of study in schools that is designed to ensure nationwide uniformity of content and standards in education. It is usually legislated by the national government, possibly in consultation with Federated stat ...

and

City Technology College In England, a City Technology College (CTC) is an urban all-ability specialist schoolWalter (2007), p. 6 for students aged 11 to 18 specialising in science, technology and mathematics. They charge no fees and are independent of local authority ...

through the

Education Reform Act 1988 The Education Reform Act 1988 is widely regarded as the most important single piece of education legislation in England and Wales since the 'Butler' Education Act 1944. Provisions The main provisions of the Education Reform Act are as follows: ...

. Dearing died in February 2009 but he and Baker's ideas were approved by education minister

Andrew Adonis Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis, (born Andreas Adonis; 22 February 1963) is a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician and journalist who served in HM Government for five years in the Third Blair ministry, Blair ministry and the Brown mi ...

of the Labour Party and the incoming Conservative-Lib Dem coalition. The first UTC opened in 2010 and further expansion soon followed. Since then, the trust has been tasked by the Department for Education to oversee the UTC programme. It aids UTCs in deciding their curricular provision and technical qualifications (of which they specialise) and also helps open more UTCs. This is provided through a partnership with the department which is reviewed per annum. Baker has used this to promote the programme and influence the government's education policy, introducing the Baker Clause to the Technical and Further Education Act 2017. This clause requires schools to provide all pupils in

years A year or annus is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hou ...

Year 8 Year 8 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand. It is the eighth or ninth year of compulsory education. It is known as Seventh grade in the United States and Canada, and First ...

Year 13 Year 13 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England and Wales, Northern Ireland and New Zealand. It is sometimes the thirteenth and final year of compulsory education, or alternatively a year of post-compulsory e ...

access to a non-academic careers adviser. These advisers are expected to discuss UTCs with pupils, promoting them whilst doing so. Many schools have failed to follow the clause, resulting in threats of legal action from Baker. The trust has also attempted to introduce a technical

baccalaureate Baccalaureate may refer to: * ''Baccalauréat'', a French national academic qualification * Bachelor's degree, or baccalaureate, an undergraduate academic degree * English Baccalaureate, a performance measure to assess secondary schools in England ...

with Andrew Adonis. From 2012 to 2019 the trust's chief executive was Charles Parker. Upon his resignation he was replaced by Simon Connell. Parker has remained in the trust as an adviser to its

senior management Senior management, executive management, upper management, or a management is generally individuals at the highest level of management of an organization who have the day-to-day tasks of managing that organization—sometimes a company or a corpor ...

Support

The trust has seen continued political and academic support, with the

board of trustees A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

having included Labour's Kumar Bhattacharyya and Andrew Adonis and educators such as

Kevin Satchwell Sir Kevin Joseph Satchwell is a British educator who is headmaster of Thomas Telford School in Shropshire and the founding Chief Executive (CEO) to the Thomas Telford Multi Academy Trust (TTMAT). Satchwell was born in Wednesbury, Staffordshire ...

, Edwina Dunn and Mike Tomlinson. Other supporters include

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

education secretary

Gavin Williamson Sir Gavin Alexander Williamson (born 25 June 1976) is a British politician who most recently served as Minister of State without Portfolio from 25 October to 8 November 2022. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Staffordshire s ...

, astronaut

Tim Peake Major Timothy Nigel Peake (born 7 April 1972) is a British Army Air Corps officer, European Space Agency astronaut and a former International Space Station (ISS) crew member. He is the first British ESA astronaut, the second astronaut to bear ...

, physicist Brian Cox, Rear Admiral

John Clink Rear Admiral John Robert Hamilton Clink, (born 18 February 1964) is a former Royal Navy officer who retired from the Royal Navy in 2018. Early life and education Clink was born on 18 February 1964. He was educated at Cheltenham Grammar School, ...

and lords

Peter Mandelson Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson (born 21 October 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who served as First Secretary of State from 2009 to 2010. He was President of the Board of Trade in 1998 and from 2008 to 2010. He is the ...

and

David Puttnam David Terence Puttnam, Baron Puttnam, CBE, HonFRSA, HonFRPS, MRIA (born 25 February 1941) is a British film producer, educator, environmentalist and former member of the House of Lords. His productions include ''Chariots of Fire'', which wo ...

. An eight-member independent policy group of MPs co-chaired by Kenneth Baker and

Robert Halfon Robert Henry Halfon (; born 22 March 1969) is a British Conservative Party politician, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Harlow since 2010. Halfon was formerly a researcher for Conservative MPs, including as Chief of Staff to Shadow Chancellor ...

has been established to aid the trust and enforce the Baker Clause.

Research

The trust conducts research into UTCs, often comparing them to mainstream schools. This research appears to typically favour UTCs and often clashes with the Department for Education's official data. BDT chair Kenneth Baker claims that this is because the official data is outdated by two years and disregards exam results from students taking a level 2 qualification or lower.

References

External links

Trust website
{{Specialist schools in the United Kingdom Educational charities based in the United Kingdom Engineering education in the United Kingdom