LDE UTC’s very own Furnaz Ahmed, Assistant Head and Built Environment Lead, was selected by the Worshipful Company of World Traders, (one of the City of London Companies known as the Livery), to be a part of their celebration for International Women’s Day 2021. She was honoured to have appeared as a panellist for their celebration, which was broadcast across the world. Furnaz shared with the world the quality of our Teaching and Learning, providing outstanding examples of our teachers’ pedagogy.

Furnaz, who is passionate about encouraging female students to join the STEM industry, appeared as an associate for Meena Kumari Wood – an ex-HMI Inspector and co-author of the book “Secondary Curriculum Transformed – Enabling all to Achieve”, in which she features LDE UTC as “an excellent example of a UTC, which brings learning to life for young people by bringing the world of work into their studies.” It is about rethinking the national curriculum and how project-based learning can support learner development. 

Furnaz says, “I was delighted to be a part of the panel and to represent LDE UTC. We discussed the fantastic opportunities we provide our young learners and how learning with us enables them to access the two golden tickets to achieve success.

“We also discussed International Women’s Day, and how important it is that particularly young female learners see what they can achieve through inspiring role models, consistently exemplified through our employer engagement.

“We talked about remote learning, and the gap there might have been. Teaching and learning strategies around digital technology that could support closing the gap were also mentioned. However, what was highlighted best that whilst digital "edTech" has its space- what is more Important is building problem solving skills, which comes from project-based learning”.

The lively debate went on to tackle such subjects as class, whether the curriculum reflects diversity, systemic and structural barriers, and questions such as “are beauticians paid less because of the job or because it is a role typically occupied by women?”

You can watch the full broadcast here. The entire panel is shown at 6 min 46 seconds, Furnaz is introduced at 8:51 minutes, and takes part in the full discussion from 16 min 20 seconds.