News Items
Working in partnership with the Aimhigher NHS Strand, the Outreach team at the University of Sheffield hosted a visit for 100 pupils from the NW cluster of Barnsley Schools.
Taking part were cohorts from St Michaels, Willowgarth, Darton High and the Carlton Community College (following the merger of Edward Sheerian and Royston Schools). Aimhigher Coordinator, Kirsten Fretwell, worked enthusiastically to bring together the newly formed college and schools for this collaborative visit day for the Barnsley Y11s.
The students enjoyed a tour of the University campus before undertaking practical taster sessions related to NHS professions.
For Dentistry they created 'dental crowns', using plastercine and undertook clinical skills with current Medical students, learning how to take patient's temperature, blood pressure, how to give injections and resuscitation techniques using body dummies.
Pupils took part in the Aimhigher South Yorkshire 'Cash Course' to introduce them to the student funding and bursaries available from the NHS.
Carole Jerome of the Aimhigher NHS Strand was on hand to answer any NHS career related questions that the pupils had and to give practical guidance to anyone who was considering a career within the healthcare professions.
Pupils comments on how 'hands on' and enjoyable the day had been, with over 50% saying that they were considering study at FE level and that the day had made them more aware of the help that was available pursuing a 'medical' career.
The day provided a good example of how local Aimhigher networking brought together a number of Aimhigher projects to provide a practical and informative, themed, HE visit day.
Click here to see pictures of the students enjoying their day.
Over 80 pupils and key influencers from across South Yorkshire attended this first event in the Disability Outreach Project's calendar for 2009-2010. The event aimed to ensure that these students are informed about access and support available to them whilst studying for a degree, in order to make the transition to university life as smooth as possible. The attendees were able to meet with staff from both of Sheffield 's universities to discuss support available in higher education, to listen to first hand testimony from current and recently graduated students about their own personal experience at university, and to take a tour of Sheffield Hallam University's Learning Centre.
Louise Loughlin, from the Aimhigher Disabilty Outreach Project at the University of Sheffield said "We know that students who receive support at university perform better in higher education, than those who don't. We hope this outreach scheme, and events like this, will encourage potential disabled students to disclose their difficulty early in the application process, so that the necessary support can be arranged upon their arrival at university. Making the transition to university can be a daunting process, but by making students fully aware of the support available, we hope to provide the reassurance and the confidence needed to make that transition easier."
Victoria Jackson, from the Aimhigher Disabilty Outreach Project at Sheffield Hallam University, said "It's difficult for disabled students to know about the range of support available at university, added to which, the process of getting funding via Disabled Students Allowances can be quite complex. It's great for us to have the opportunity to run events that can really make a difference and help to ensure students can be properly supported from the beginning of their courses."
This is the first in a series of events that the Disability Project has planned for the forthcoming academic year.
Rob Harrison, David Lammy, Sue Webb & Jed O'Neill
HE Minister Visits Aimhigher South Yorkshire
Higher Education Minister David Lammy paid a visit to the offices of Aimhigher South Yorkshire, at 48 Howard Street today. He met with Director Jed O'Neill, APC Chair Professor Sue Webb, and Higher Futures Director Rob Harrison to discuss issues around the widening participation agenda. David Lammy said “Universities have an important role to play in helping the country through the economic downturn and I’m delighted to be in Sheffield today to see how institutions are working with businesses to support innovation and contribute to the health of their local communities.
“It’s also been great to see at first hand the work that Aimhigher South Yorkshire and Higher Futures Lifelong Learning Network are doing to help young people, regardless of their background, get the chance to fulfil their potential through higher education.”
BT Apprenticeship Opportunities
BT are looking to recruit large numbers for their apprenticeship schemes across the UK. People can apply from 15th December 2008 to 19th January 2009 at www.bt.com/apprentice. The apprenticeships are: Customer Service, I.T., Telecoms and Vehicle Technology. For further information about the scheme you can visit BT's apprenticeship pages.
Press Cuttings
An Aimhigher press cuttings service is currently under negotiation where relevant press cutting will be available for practitioners and partners. A number of licensing issues have had to be resolved in order to facilitate this. Discussions have been held with Durrants (who operate the press cuttings service) and the Newspaper Licensing Authority to agree a way forward. Aimhigher is near the end of protracted negotiations and hopefully the service will commence before the end of this month. Further information to follow.
HE Information Booklets
Aimhigher is working closely with HEFCE and DIUS to resolve the issues regarding the content, timing and distribution of the national HE information brochures. Unfortunately in respect of figures for 2009 entry DIUS has confirmed that these have not been included in the recently updated post-16 brochure, as the figures have not been signed off by Ministers. The final figures are scheduled to be made available on the Directgov website in January.
Area Communications Plans
Communications plans which were submitted over the summer are currently with HEFCE for review and analysis and these will utilised in development of the campaign calendar. Further information to follow.
