In 2020, the College became one of just 20 that was chosen from across the country to participate in WorldSkills UK’s Centre of Excellence programme in partnership with NCFE.
The college’s engineering students learn in state-of-art facilities within the college’s East London Institute of Technology, which are the same are those used in modern digital factories today. The labs have been purpose-built for teaching people about advanced technologies and competitors used equipment and machinery that are used in modern manufacturing.
Yeaba was one of the winners of regional heats in WorldSkills UK and competed in national finals held at Barking & Dagenham College last November. She explains: “The engineering BTEC gives you a good grounding in all sorts of aspects of engineering, including electronics, mechanical engineering, and you do a lot of practical work
At the College, I got to work with industry 4.0 equipment and 3D printers to print out card models. I also used the College’s Computer Numerical Control machine (a motorized manoeuvrable tool which is controlled by a computer), to cut out parts for my final project, a casing for a computer mouse.
“It was great to study at a Centre of Excellence. I felt very proud and considered myself very lucky; it’s very hard to get into a college which has such good equipment as they have at Barking & Dagenham College. I feel it’s given me lots of opportunities, for example, allowing me to get into the WorldSkills competition. I decided to go for the industry 4.0 category after being trained on the 4.0 equipment at the College.
Industry 4.0 refers to what is being called the fourth industrial revolution, the digitisation of manufacturing. In the competition, Yeaba was given a networking task, showing how various elements within an industry 4.0 factory work in symphony with one another.
Yeaba continues,
The teachers were very helpful and gave lots of help with assignments and explained things very clearly, I found them so supportive.
“I’m now at City University London, studying mechanical engineering on a three-year degree. I want to get a job in a mechanical field or designing field as I really like computer aided design. I also like project management, so that would be an option for me.
“Studying at a Centre of Excellence, gave me a head start into getting onto the degree of my choice. I like solving problems and creative solutions to everyday problems and I love maths, so engineering was a good study choice for me and will hopefully lead me into a well-paid job.
The East London Institute of Technology is home to industry standard training labs containing high-end equipment to give students hands-on training in advanced engineering and robotics. Students train in three specialised labs, a Mechatronics & Industry 4.0 Lab, a Fluid Power lab, and an Electric Power Technology lab.
