Uni Connect - Linking London update
News from Uni Connect and Linking London in July 2022.
Our engagement with ward learners this year has surpassed our expectations, with 512 target learners participating in our programme - over 30% of the total population in FE/Sixth Form colleges in London. Engagement on our programme follows our progression framework with learners participating in a mix of one-to-one sessions as well as specific programmes such as Brightside mentoring, our Mindmapper programme and one-off events such as campus visits. In total, we have put on over 1300 activities this year.
Our focus over the last month has been continuing to offer our Pathway programme of face-to-face sessions to target learners as well as wrapping up our online mentoring through Brightside. We also ran our third and final Mindmapper programme of the year, focusing on goal setting and resilience and at the end of May we held a very successful in-person graduation ceremony at Havering Sixth Form College and Havering Further Education College to celebrate the achievements of students on the programme. Finally, we are delighted to be able to partner with Middlesex University to offer 11 students the opportunity to take part in their 'Levelling Up' Maths support programme which will run until the end of the year.
Uni Connect Adult and Strategic Strand
It's been a busy month for us with a mixture of activity with students and research to inform next year's work. Our collaborative one-day summer school - hosted at Middlesex with inputs from staff/ambassadors from Greenwich, New College of the Humanities, Birkbeck, and Middlesex - was very successful with 46 students from Barking and Dagenham College and Havering Sixth Form College attending. Some of our match-funded strategic outreach projects have also started, involving work with young homeless people, learners with SEND, and learners from low socioeconomic/low HE participation areas.
Jade has led on research with colleges regarding support for adult learners - we will share insights from our survey of adult learners in the coming weeks. Our last monthly bulletin for this academic year went out last week - you may find the London university summer open day calendar useful.