Engineering University Marks Its Inaugural Graduation Ceremony
The first group of students has left a school that was made to help fix a lack of engineers in the UK.
The New Model in Technology and Engineering in Hereford opened in 2021. It uses a "hands-on" way to teach, not just normal classes and tests, to help get students ready for work.
The first event was at 2pm in the city's big church. Almost 400 people came to watch 25 students get their papers.
Mahmoud Awad, 24, from Sierra Leone, finished with an MA in Integrated Engineering. He said his degree "meant the world" to him. "At one point I felt like I would never be an engineer, but now here I am."
He said he had gotten a job at the building group Balfour Beatty.
He also said this day was one he would "keep in his heart always."
A school leader said the day was a "big day" in the UK's higher learning. NMITE is one of a few new schools that join "book smarts, hands-on skills, and work learning."
James Newby, head and boss of the school, said the day was big not just for staff and students but for all of Herefordshire.
"NMITE was made to help this place, not to fix what is not there, but to build on what is good.
"We are here because Herefordshire should get top-level learning, and we think the future of building things should start in places like this," Mr. Newby said.
The school's new way to teach had worked well. More people want to learn here, with sign-ups up 77% from last year, the leader also said.
