About Us
What is the WEIoT – what does it mean for my business?
The world of work is changing fast, driven by new and disruptive technologies. As job roles change and new ones are created, businesses in many sectors increasingly need individuals with higher technical skills to improve their productivity and growth. Over the coming years, these skills will become more important if British business is to seize on the opportunities of technological change.
Institutes of Technology (IoT) are the Government’s flagship programme designed to spearhead the delivery of higher technical education in STEM subjects. Here in the West of England we have brought together employers with FE colleges and the University of the West of England.
We are designed to help you with the skills you need for your workforce. The WEIoT is part of the Government’s ambition of levelling up skills across the country; we oer an accessible route into high wage and high skilled employment.
WEIoT supports our local economies with a skilled workforce that can drive productivity, take advantage of key growth opportunities.
Our Aims
The Impact
If we don’t have a technical workforce that is representative of the society within which we work, we will fall short in meeting the expectations of the next generation; to create a better world which is more inclusive and sustainable.
Despite the challenges of the pandemic which saw technical education and apprenticeships in particular decrease nationally, WEIoT has maintained progress and exceeded its targets for the first three years of operation:
Impact on Learners
The investment in equipment and teaching has allowed those students to go further and do more. One IoT learner Jack an Applied Computing student with the WEIoT won a World Skills Gold medal and has been selected for the GB team. Jack also now shares his knowledge and skills with other learners teaching part time at Weston College.
Impact on our businesses
The IoT has enabled partners to work together in collaboration, whether this is education with employers, or primes with SME’s public sector with private sector, we have all gained from the relationship. We have achieved more by working together than working in silos, our Certificate of Future Technologies, designed and built as a partnership was a testament to the power of collaboration in a time pressured project.
Take a look at some example case studies that showcase how the IoT is having impact for employers...
IoT learner target
IoT mature learner
IoT female learners
WEIoT Higher/Degree Apprentices
Cutting-edge technology
The WEIoT funding has created opportunities for the educational partners to invest in cutting edge technology to provide learners and employers with facilities to drive forward the developments needed to help build recovery.
The focus on technical skills and education offered by the collaborative approach brings wider benefits and the WEIoT will support learners who may not have thought that higher level skills training was for them using our digital connectivity to its full potential.
A fantastic example of this is partnership work with Jisc and Barco to build trailblazing ‘virtual classroom’ to support the WeIoT.
Weston College, the lead organisation for the West of England Institute of Technology (IoT), has launched a virtual classroom in a first for further education (FE) in the UK.
The project, developed with support from Jisc and technology supplier Barco, includes innovations such as mobile extending cameras, and provides the opportunity for enhanced remote-access education.
We are now offering courses at the Bristol Training Institute - the home of the WEIoT in Central Bristol...
The WEIoT is delivering the skills training needed by business, for the West of England. At the Bristol Training Institute we currently offer adult courses covering a variety of subjects - and as full qualifications, they're ideal for people looking to retrain, upskill or progress on to university.
