Aim Higher

Thurrock Learning Partnership wants young people in Thurrock to have the opportunity to have a taste of university life. There are two schemes operating In Thurrock at present and the Partnership is seeking more funding to be able to offer more opportunities.

The first scheme - Young People into Higher Education – has been running for three years now and is part of a national campaign to widen participation in Higher Education.

This project, formerly known as Children into Universities, is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

Young people participate in a range of aspiration raising activities including visits to a variety of universities

Some typical comments from young people:

“They were three enjoyable days and we would all like to do it again!”

“We gained insight into further education learning alongside students in a college situation.”

“Writtle ….was such a different experience …”
“We’d recommend it to our friends”

The whole experience helps young people to realise that higher education need not be an intimidating experience. It can be quite overwhelming to be the first person in your family to even think about going to University.

The second scheme is the Cambridge Initiative and is designed to raise aspirations, self-confidence and awareness of Higher Education.  This scheme is complementary to the above one but is aimed at 15 year olds in Year 10 and aims to enable them to become aware of their own potential.

The lead partner is Palmer’s College working in partnership with Cambridge University and a number of local schools.

Three days of intellectual challenge and team working await the participants in this programme. One day takes place at Palmer’s College, the second day at Cambridge University with a debrief and feedback day on the third day, which includes the groups producing their own PowerPoint presentations about what they had done and what they had learnt. Clear progression pathways are identified across the three phases, secondary, tertiary and higher education. This has proved another successful programme achieving its objectives for young people to aim high.

email Aim Higher

email the Cambridge Initiative