Dana Gadd is celebrating outstanding results at the end of Year 11 at UTC Leeds. The 16-year-old has achieved a 9 in physics, with 8s in most other subjects, and a Distinction* in her technical qualifications, engineering and manufacturing engineering.
Dana is planning to stay at the UTC to study physics, maths, further maths and single engineering: “I feel the opportunities here are good and I like the teachers.
“I’m hoping to get into the space industry to design and build space craft. I’ve just been at Space School at University of Leicester where we built rockets. I’ve always been interested in space and that’s another reason why I came here.”
Dana is very happy with her choice to move to the UTC in Year 10: “The UTC offers a lot more opportunities and I don’t think I would have done as well in my previous school. I’ve been able to do a lot more here and I’ve learnt a lot. I’ve been able to do engineering and do practical work, but academically it’s been good too. The teachers all help you a lot.”
She added: “The people here are very nice and welcoming and I’ve made much better friends. I think it’s because we all have the same mindset.”
University Technical Colleges – UTCs – are focused on equipping young people for the world of work as well as gaining qualifications. Employer engagement is a big part of the offer with opportunities to visit employers and work on projects. Dana has been on a number of employer visits, including to global manufacturing company Agfa and to Lambert Engineering, which specialises in manufacturing automation and innovation. She also enjoyed doing project work.
“We did a project the other year where we designed and printed some model cars that you could power with rubber bands and we took them to a primary school and let them build them.
“I’m happy I’ve come to the UTC. I think it was definitely worth it.”
