Higher Horizons+ raising students' aspirations
Following its official launch, Higher Horizons+ has continued its energetic and dynamic approach to raising aspirations. A variety of targeted and engaging outreach activities have already taken place, including mentoring projects, campus visits and the roll out of the new Unify residential programme.
On Monday, Keele University welcomed Paulet High School and Sixth Form College onto campus as part of the recently established Higher Horizons+ Mentoring Project. Paulet are the first school to experience this exciting new initiative which sees sixth form students mentor their high school counterparts, encouraging them to think about their futures.
As a reward for their hard work so far, the students came onto campus for an immersive HE experience, taking part in taster seminars and workshops delivered by Keele academics and activities designed to help learners think about potential career paths and routes to HE.
Paulet’s Progress and Achievement Coordinator, Ahsan Ashraf said: “Our trip to Keele was awesome and we’ve had some great comments from students. It helped them remove some of the barriers they had created as a result of misconceptions, and broadened their horizons.’’
Today, Middlewich High School’s Y11 students have joined us on campus, for bespoke workshops around progression into both FE and HE, academic taster sessions and a tour of Keele campus.
This week, Higher Horizons+ have also attended a variety of careers conventions such as South Cheshire College’s STEM celebration and Endon High School’s Progression Evening, where they were able to offer expert advice and guidance to young people and parents across the region.
The official website for Higher Horizons+ will launch later this month.
For any questions about the scheme, please contact Ant Sutcliffe: a.g.sutcliffe@keele.ac.uk
The key aims of the Mentoring Project are to develop students knowledge of university as well as essential skills in communication, leadership and confidence. The sixth form students will simultaneously be gaining experience in mentoring and increasing their volunteering hours, both of which can be used to enrich their personal statements for applying to UCAS or their CV.