Uni Connect - Linking London Update November 2023
November 2023 update from Uni Connect
This month has been another busy time for Uni Connect with staffing now complete.
For our Strategic Outreach strand, our Engagement Co-ordinators have been offering talks, workshops and 121 support for our year 12 and 13 college students. They have organised and delivered group talks on Apprenticeships and wider career options along with 121 UCAS application support. Targeted sessions with bursary students for in class talks on Accounting and Geography has been bringing the university to Havering, and a 6 week programme for students with an EHCPs and additional learning support has launched in Coulsdon College. Middlesex, West London and UEL have all delivered talks, workshops, seminars and personal statement sessions to our students in Barking & Dagenham.
Under this strand, we have also launched a new project targeting White Working Class Boys, addressing the widening gap of WWCB into university. Focusing on football and the wider sporting industry, we’ll be working with university partners to deliver a long-term initiative for selected students in year 12, offering workshops, talks, campus visits and mentoring with an aim to showcase attainable pathways into sporting careers through university courses.
For our Attainment Raising strand, we are working toward a spring launch for our two collaborative projects, one addressing learner literacy and oracy, and the other tackling the challenge of non-specialist teachers being drafted in to teach Maths. We also have a small project delivering CPD to teachers around metacognition and are planning a campus visit at Birkbeck with a subject-specific attainment raising focus later in the year.
For our Targeted Outreach, we are launching our set of webinars to start in March next year. These will be delivered with university partners and will be on Apprenticeships, Student Finance, Support for SEN/D students and Healthcare Careers. We are also running a staff CPD webinar for college careers staff on Student Finance for Non-UK Students which will be delivered by Ben Rutter from Student Finance England.