WECAN is the Aimhigher London West, Central & North Partnership.
Part of the national Aimhigher programme we are a partnership of Higher Education Institutions, Further Education Colleges and Local Authorities working together to deliver activities to support the progression of learners to Higher Education. We target in particular, young people from lower socio-economic groups and those with disabilities.
The WECAN Guarantee, offering schools a chance to take part in activities covering all the Key Stages and teachers a guaranteed level of support, is now up and running. Already HEIs have signed up to deliver a diverse range of activities including; STEM masterclasses, workshops, short lectures and Progression to Professions. With 30 projects being run across the partnership, the Guarantee should see even more learners benefitting from the Aimhigher project. So far we have 7 HEIs and a number of local authorities signed up to the Guarantee across the WECAN area.
The WECAN Guarantee brochure is now available with a full list of all the activities on offer, detailed information on how to apply and what is on offer.
Aimhigher WECAN will be leading on a London wide initiative from the Department of Children, Schools and Families (now the Department for Education) in partnership with the School Higher Education Links (SHELL) programme designed to target younger age groups for support: Higher Education Experiences.
Over 75 schools in London will be receiving £10,000 to support a HE experience for year 7-9 pupils. A total of 36 schools from all the 14 Local Authorities in the partnership will be participating. Details of all the activities in WECAN schools will be on our website in June and a brochure for all stakeholders will be published at the same time. Many of the Universities that have worked closely with WECAN have already signed up with Westminster, SOAS, TVU and Cambridge signed up already.
EAN annual Conference, Stockholm
Dr Graeme Atherton recently went to the annual conference of the the European Access Network to deliver a presentation on Access in the 21st Century. To what is happening in the wider European Community on the issues of Access and Widening Participation go to the EAN website.