The JCB Academy works with many large and small local businesses that help deliver practical, often demanding challenges for the learners, including Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK, Bosch Rexroth, Bentley Motors, Network Rail, Rolls-Royce and Michelin. Learners present their practical projects to an assessment board that includes directors at these companies and JCB. Some alumni are now senior managers in large engineering companies and some run their own businesses.

More important than academic excellence here is to instil professional behaviours and to prepare learners holistically for work. “That is our DNA,” says Principal Jim Bailey.

For schools, educators, and businesses interested in knowing how to integrate or mould a school curriculum with business, to understand what companies need in their workforce, this is a good guide.