Setting up and maintaining electronics as a design & technology focus area in your school can be a challenge. But when successful, the subject can be a real benefit to your school as well as to pupils.

The main benefits for schools of including electronics as a design & technology subject are;

• It is a modern subject with a broad appeal
• It can raise the profile of the school
• External partnerships and industry links can be established
• It can provide pathways for pupils into further education, higher education and vocational training

It is a modern subject with a broad appeal

Electronics is a subject that is relevant to pupils, and which has the scope to let pupils incorporate their own interests into project work. As a design & technology subject, electronics can appeal to the whole spectrum of ability levels, and if teachers can tailor their teaching according to different ability levels all pupils can be engaged and get satisfaction out of the subject. This can be achieved for example by setting lower ability level pupils system tasks, whilst giving higher ability levels more freedom with their designs and more in depth learning about the electronics within the system.

“I think a very wide spectrum of students could gain from being involved with electronics” Head Teacher

It can raise the profile of the school

Design & technology complements the traditional subject areas such as Maths and English by broadening the scope of subjects on offer, and this variety can really appeal to parents and pupils, both present and prospective.

External partnerships and industry links can be established

Industry links and external partnerships can raise the profile of the school, and of course bring many benefits to pupils. These include providing a real world insight for pupils into working life, creating contexts for pupils studying electronics as well as teaching specific skills that they can bring back in to their work in the classroom.

The school-industry relationship can be mutually beneficial as industries are often keen to invest in a workforce for the future and can offer schools:

• Industry visits
• Hosting of events and compeitions, such as micromouse and GETSET
• Pupil mentoring, through for example, the Science & Engineering Ambassador's Scheme (SEAS)
• Resources for use in electronics lessons

External partnerships and industry links can either be incorporated into core teaching within the curriculum, or be treated as additional to core teaching. To find out more about getting involved in external partnerships and industry links go to going further in the teaching advice section.

It can provide pathways for pupils into further education, higher education and vocational training

Schools that teach electronics play an important role in encouraging more young people to go into electronics and engineering related further education and vocational training. It is valuable for the school to be providing their pupils with the inspiration to further their studies, or to go on to vocational training, and the benefits of this for industry in the UK are clear.

“Schools like this one twenty years ago had a focus on Oxbridge success, academic sucess, and I think it’s very important that they refocus with a lot of very able minds going out into more vocationally related careers.” Head Teacher

(This material was originally created for the Electronics in Schools Project and published on the dedicated website electronicsinschools.com)