![]() I know this because they get jobs quickly. When they’re good they’re attractive to employers. What sort of jobs do your graduates go for, and get?I’m very confident about the employability of my students. Before we’d concentrated on how things work, but now we’ll be expanding the design side of things. ![]() What else is Christopher Ward involved with at BCU?Mike France can see a need in the market for new designers. We find our graduates move to an organisation and move rapidly up to management as they have these additional skills. How would they promote it? Where would it be sited? How would they work out their financial viability? It’s a broad approach compared to the Swiss way. We also encourage students to look at other elements of industry, like business.We ask them what it would be like to set up and run their own business. In high-end mechanisms, parts are often machine-made, then hand-finished to enable the components to work together. A significant part of the course is about those fine hand skills, so students can make bespoke components themselves, but also finish components made by others. We concentrate on the practical elements of service, repair and restoring horological mechanisms. So traditional skills are vital…Of course. In the third year, they actually make the clock. That’s based around two strands: one, working together in groups to design a clock for public space and second working solo on a mechanism of their own. Today, CW sponsors a prize on horological movement design for our second-year students. Tell us about the link between the course and Christopher Ward… We first met at Salon QP in 2014, and they’ve supported us ever since. We show how that software can also be used to control manufacturing equipment. In year one, we teach them an engineering CAD program called Solidworks, which CW’s designers will be familiar with. At the same time, they also pick up a strong knowledge of horological mechanisms: how they work, how they’ve evolved, what are the most common faults – and how to rectify them. I give my students the ability to project-manage, plan, research, work in groups (or alone), and to present themselves and their work across a variety of mediums. We’re developing the flexibility of individuals to shape their own career path. What are the key skills you teach? There’s a difference between teaching, and training, somebody. We have the occasional student who comes here to indulge themselves: some see themselves as the next George Daniels or Roger Smith, and think it’ll be relatively easy to design and build their own watches. Most are drawn by the glitzy world of watches – around 70 percent – though a small cohort are drawn to clocks, too. The majority have thought deeply about what they want to do because it’s so expensive to be a student. What type of students do you attract? The average age is in the early 20s. We launched it in 2012 and it’s been growing ever since. I consulted with the industry to make sure the course had everything it needed and the right academic outcomes to qualify as a degree status. For a number of reasons, having both a further education course (BHI) and a higher-level course (HND) running side by side was complicated, so we united everything into a degree format. When I was brought back here to lead the BHI pathway, my former lecturer was still here, but he took early redundancy and I took over the whole provision. But during my time as a student, the university created its own HND pathway. How did you become a horologist? The horology course I studied in the 1990s followed the distance learning course of the British Horological Institute. Here, course head, Professor Jeremy Hobbins, tells us how the degree prepares his students for a career in watchmaking – and why he still considers himself a ‘fixer’. ![]() One of the key drivers for people looking to get into watchmaking is the BA (Hons) Horology course at Birmingham City University. ![]() British horology is undergoing a renaissance, with micro-brands popping up around the country, larger companies like Christopher Ward competing – and beating – the most esteemed names in watchmaking, and the new Alliance of British Watch and Clockmakers proving to be a unifying voice for the industry. ![]()
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