The launch of the UK’s first new university for some thirty years has been greeted with interest by business leaders. Poised to open its doors in 2017, the university aims to bridge the skills gap in engineering and technology. NMITE (New Model in Technology & Engineering) will use the teaching methods pioneered by the Olin College in the USA to train graduates not only in engineering but also to develop leadership skills and entrepreneurial skills with an emphasis on teamwork, collaboration, inter-disciplinary skills, and innovation.
The announcement of this new university comes at an opportune time. An engineeringuk report recently concluded that, “the UK at all levels of education does not have either the current capacity or the rate of growth needed to meet the forecast demand for skilled engineers by 2022.” The same report concluded that failure to meet this demand for trained engineers by 2022 could cost the UK £27 billion per year in lost revenues.
But engineering is not just about technical skills and the fact that NMITE intends to place a strong emphasis on leadership skills is to be welcomed. Those who start their leadership journey even before they enter the world of work are ideally placed to nurture and mature those skills throughout their working lives and in the process enable others to maximise their own full potential.
