SGS Berkeley Green UTC 
SGS Pegasus School 
SGS Forest High School Welcome to SGS Berkeley Green UTC
Opened in September 2017, SGS Berkeley Green UTC is Gloucestershire’s newest educational institution providing the outstanding academic education you would expect from a school with the technical and employer focused education of a college.
Students join us for their GCSEs in Year 10 or A Levels and Technical Qualifications in Year 12 and thrive in this dynamic learning environment. Our work with employers gives you the competitive edge when looking for employment within the areas of Engineering, Digital Technologies and Cyber Security as well as giving you the first class education that you would also expect from a secondary school or sixth form setting.
You can download our latest prospectus below.
So what is a UTC?
A UTC is a University Technical College. In March 2015 SGS Berkeley Green UTC was given the go-ahead by the Secretary of State for Education because of the demand by employers to fill Gloucestershire’s skills gap in high technology.
The UTC provides specialist high quality vocational and academic education for learners aged 14-19 with a strong interest in Engineering, Digital Technologies and Cyber Security. SGS Berkeley Green UTC is one of about fifty University Technical Colleges nationally.
As with all UTCs, SGS Berkeley Green UTC’s curriculum has been developed in partnership with employers, who have taken an active role in the development of the UTC. Students follow the national curriculum enabling them to achieve the same number of GCSEs that they would in a school, but because of the longer school days they also have an additional forty percent of their time focused on undertaking specialist vocational education and projects led by employers in the areas of Engineering, Cyber Security and Digital Technologies. This enables students at a UTC to become more attractive to employers as they have practical, relevant skills as well as having the same excellent education and qualifications that they would get within a secondary school or sixth form.
So what is life at a UTC like?
Life at a University Technical College is very similar to school in many ways in terms of the general curriculum but is also excitingly different to school in that it has much more in common with the workplace and a professional employment setting.
The ‘school day’ is longer and teaching and learning are conducted in an adult environment that really helps you to progress into the world of work or into higher education for degree level study when you leave the UTC.
That added extra
SGS Berkeley Green UTC has a unique curriculum focused on Engineering, Cyber Security and Digital Technologies. We have therefore invested heavily in the specialist equipment that enables us to deliver the skills that employers need.
Students and parents comment that our environment feels more like a university or smart office building. You will not find another school with anything like our Security Operations Centre (SOC), and our IT infrastructure and Engineering facilities are second to none.
Our approach to learning
The University Technical College’s exciting approach to learning offers young people excellent progression opportunities, many with the extensive number of major regional employers who have sponsored the UTC and also with the University of Gloucestershire.
When you finish at the UTC
On completion of their studies, learners leaving SGS Berkeley Green UTC can expect to secure Apprenticeships, Degree Level Apprenticeships, places at University or employment with many of our major partners in the areas of Engineering, Cyber Security or Digital Technologies.
The UTC Campus
SGS Berkeley Green UTC is located at the Gloucestershire Science and Technology Park near Berkeley, on a campus managed by South Gloucestershire and Stroud College.
The College has full-time Post 16 Engineering provision on site and the University of Gloucestershire offers degree programmes on campus in Cyber Security.
Site Accessibility
Berkeley Green UTC is a new school and the buildings are built to comply with all disability legislation.
There are automatic doors at reception and a lift to all floors large enough to accommodate most self-propelled and electrically powered wheelchairs. The building features an acoustic treatment to ceilings to improve audibility for young people with hearing impairments; disabled user toilets and a fully accessible wet room for non-ambulant learners.
The Riverside Cafeteria is an older building and currently has manually opening doors. Some disabled users may require assistance to open these. There is currently no disabled access to the outside patio area of the cateteria.
There is plenty of parking for disabled people with level access from these bays to the building.
Transport to the school via bus is fully accessible at the bus stop at the western end of the car park.
About the site
The new £15million UTC is based at the former Berkeley Laboratories; the site has been at the cutting edge of science and technology for over forty years, mainly in support of the commercialisation of nuclear power.
The adjoining Berkeley Power Station (now disused) generated clean, safe electricity for over thirty years, until it entered a decommissioning phase in 1989. At its peak the power station and laboratories employed nearly 2,000 local people.
The Berkeley power station was the first commercial nuclear power station.
