In England

Education in England

Education in England is overseen by the Department for Education and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Local authorities take responsibility for implementing policy for public education and state schools at a regional level....

, a City Technology College (CTC) is a state-funded all-ability secondary school

Secondary school

Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...

 that charges no fees but is independent of local authority control, being overseen directly by the Department for Education

Department for Education

The Department for Education is a department of the UK government responsible for issues affecting people in England up to the age of 19, including child protection and education....

.
One fifth of the capital costs are met by private business sponsors, who also own or lease the buildings.
The rest of the capital costs, and all running costs, are met by the Department.

City Technology Colleges teach the National Curriculum, but specialise in mainly technology-based subjects such as technology

Technology

Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...

, science

Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

 and mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

.
Like maintained schools, they are regularly inspected by the Office for Standards in Education

Office for Standards in Education

The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills is the non-ministerial government department of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools In England ....

.
CTCs also forge close links with businesses and industry (mainly through their sponsors), and often their governors are directors of local or national businesses that are supporting or have supported the colleges. The programme has been successful in the long term with all the CTCs being considered strong establishments with consistently high academic results.

The CTC programme was established in the late 1980s by the Conservative

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 government under the terms of the Education Reform Act 1988

Education Reform Act 1988

The Education Reform Act 1988 is widely regarded as the most important single piece of education legislation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland since the 'Butler' Education Act 1944...

 and the Colleges themselves opened in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The original intention was to improve education inside cities, but the programme was hampered by the refusal of local authorities in the targeted areas to provide suitable school sites.
Building entirely new schools was much more expensive, requiring a greater contribution from the government, and the resulting schools tended to be on the outskirts of cities.
After the programme was abandoned, the government embarked on the more modest aim of designating some existing schools as Technology College

Technology College

Technology College is a term used in the United Kingdom for a secondary specialist school that focuses on design and technology, mathematics and science. These were the first type of specialist schools, beginning in 1994. In 2008 there were 598 Technology Colleges in England, of which 12 also...

s, the first specialist school

Specialist school

The specialist schools programme was a UK government initiative which encouraged secondary schools in England to specialise in certain areas of the curriculum to boost achievement. The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust was responsible for the delivery of the programme...

s.

The Learning and Skills Act 2000

Learning and Skills Act 2000

The Learning and Skills Act 2000 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It made changes in the funding and administration of further education, and of work-based learning for young people, within England and Wales....

 introduced a similar type of school, the City Academy, later renamed Academy.
Differences from CTCs include halving the financial commitment of the sponsor, and being bound by the Schools Admissions Code.
The Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 government encouraged CTCs to convert into academies.

In all, 15 City Technology Colleges were created, of which all but three have converted to academies:

School	Local Authority	Opened as a CTC	Converted to Academy
ADT College Ashcroft Technology Academy Ashcroft Technology Academy, formerly ADT College, is a state secondary school within the English academy programme in Wandsworth, London. It has specialist status in Technology. Its current headmaster is Mr Marcus Barker. The school has been awarded with the Charter Mark, Investors in People and...	Wandsworth London Borough of Wandsworth The London Borough of Wandsworth is a London borough in southwest London, England, and forms part of Inner London.-History:The borough was formed in 1965 from the former area of the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea and much of the former area of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth, but...	1992	2007
Bacon's College Bacon's College Bacon's College is a secondary school and sixth form college in England, located in Rotherhithe, London. Bacon's College was one of the handful of CTCs, however it officially changed to Academy status in 2007.-History:...	Southwark London Borough of Southwark The London Borough of Southwark is a London borough in south east London, England. It is directly south of the River Thames and the City of London, and forms part of Inner London.-History:...	1991	2007
BRIT School BRIT School The London School for Performing Arts & Technology is a British school located in Selhurst, Croydon, in London, England, with a mandate to provide education and vocational training for the performing arts, media, art and design and the technologies that make performance possible...	Croydon London Borough of Croydon The London Borough of Croydon is a London borough in South London, England and is part of Outer London. It covers an area of and is the largest London borough by population. It is the southernmost borough of London. At its centre is the historic town of Croydon from which the borough takes its name...	1991	no
Brooke Weston College Brooke Weston Brooke Weston Academy is an Academy in Corby, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom, teaching students from age 11 to 18. It has consistently placed very highly in GCSE league tables and has an above average value added score at Key Stage 4. The value added score for Key Stage 5 is below average...	Northamptonshire Northamptonshire Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...	1991	2008
Dixons Bradford CTC Dixons City Academy Dixons City Academy is an Academy in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The school was originally founded in 1990 as Dixons City Technology College which focused on a specialism of Design & Technology and Product Design. In 2005 the school converted into an Academy and in doing so changed its name to Dixons...	Bradford City of Bradford The City of Bradford is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England with the status of a city and metropolitan borough. It is named after its largest settlement, Bradford, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Keighley, Shipley, Bingley, Ilkley, Haworth, Silsden and...	1990	2005
Djanogly CTC Djanogly City Academy Djanogly City Academy is a City Academy secondary school in Nottingham, UK. The academy specialises in the use of ICT and has been open since 2003 when it replaced the oversubscribed Djanogly CTC, a City Technology College....	Nottingham Nottingham Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...	1989	2003
Emmanuel CTC	Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead The Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead is a metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. It is named after its largest town, Gateshead, but also spans the towns of Rowlands Gill, Whickham, Blaydon and Ryton; suburban areas include Felling, Pelaw, Dunston and Low Fell.It is bordered...	1990	no
Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College is an Academy secondary school located. in New Cross. The school was formerly a Grammar school, then a comprehensive City Technology College and now an Academy operating between two sites near New Cross Gate in South-East London...	Lewisham London Borough of Lewisham The London Borough of Lewisham is a London borough in south-east London, England and forms part of Inner London. The principal settlement of the borough is Lewisham...	1991	2005
Harris CTC	Croydon London Borough of Croydon The London Borough of Croydon is a London borough in South London, England and is part of Outer London. It covers an area of and is the largest London borough by population. It is the southernmost borough of London. At its centre is the historic town of Croydon from which the borough takes its name...	1990	2008
John Cabot CTC	South Gloucestershire South Gloucestershire South Gloucestershire is a unitary district in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, in South West England.-History:The district was created in 1996, when the county of Avon was abolished, by the merger of former area of the districts of Kingswood and Northavon...	1993	2007
The City Technology College, Kingshurst	Solihull Metropolitan Borough of Solihull The Metropolitan Borough of Solihull is a metropolitan borough of the West Midlands, in west-central England. It is named after its largest town, Solihull, from which Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council is based. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary...	1988	2008
Landau Forte College	Derby Derby Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...	1992	2006
Leigh CTC	Kent Kent Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...	1990	2007
Macmillan CTC Macmillan Academy Macmillan Academy is an academy in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England.The school was founded in 1989 as the Macmillan City Technology College, one of the first of 15 City Technology Colleges established in England...	Middlesbrough Middlesbrough (borough) -External links:*...	1989	2006
Thomas Telford School Thomas Telford School Thomas Telford School is a City Technology College in Telford, Shropshire, England. Often referred to as 'TTS', it achieved the highest GCSE pass rate of any comprehensive school in England in 2008 and 2009.-Background:...	Telford and Wrekin Telford and Wrekin Telford and Wrekin is a unitary district with borough status in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. The district was created in 1974 as The...	1991	no