Aspire Aimhigher South East London
About the Organisation
Aspire (Aimhigher South East London) is a partnership of 4 universities, 80 secondary schools, 10 colleges, 6 London boroughs and a range of community groups who are working together to give young people in Bexley, Greenwich, Lewisham, Southwark, Lambeth and Wandsworth more opportunities to access further and higher education and thereby maximise their life chances.
Aspire's programme of activities includes one-off sessions and ongoing courses run by the member universities' widening participation offices in conjunction with academic and administrative staff and students and local schools, colleges and Aimhigher Coordinators. The activities range from generic taster days and subject option mentoring to raise awareness at Year 9; subject based projects, student ambassador led PSHE presentations and summer schools for Years 10 & 11, subject-specific mentoring, subject taster days and UCAS application workshops to raise attainment with Years 12-13 and FE students, and multi-disciplinary projects with those from groups who are particularly under represented in higher education.
From its inception in 2003, one of Aspire’s main strands of work has been the support of progression pathways in vocational subjects. The vocational Pathways Support Project which took place in 2005/6 targeted six vocational areas including construction. It was set up to develop a variety of curriculum enrichment and support activities for young people on vocational and vocationally related courses. The aim was to inspire them about the prospects of higher education and to inform them about the exciting range of careers to which they might then progress.
LEP involvement
Aspire Aimhigher South East London welcomes the opportunity to work with the London Engineering Project to promote progression pathways into engineering. Aspire is committed to raising aspiration and attainment in the same groups as those targeted by LEP, and we share the target area of Southwark and the boroughs that border it.
Aspire Borough Coordinators are key partners in LEP’s liaison with local secondary schools, and Aspire Widening Participation staff in London South Bank University will collaborate with LEP in the organisation and running of events and activities which fulfil our shared objectives. We hope that we can enhance the work that LEP does through sharing the experience that we have acquired through doing similar work in the local area, and by making available student ambassadors from across the Aspire partnership to work on LEP activities and events.
For more information please visit their website http://www.aspire-aimhigher.ac.uk/
