The Scholars Programme inspires a love of learning, raises attainment for students aged 8–18, and offers hands-on experience of university learning while building skills for academic and career success. It also supports Gatsby Benchmarks 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7.
The Scholars Programme places parent/carer engagement at its core by running two parent/career events and giving parents/carers access to an online Hub to follow their child’s work. Parents will be upskilled with information about university, empowering them to support their child’s decision-making. This aligns with the new Gatsby guidance that “Careers programmes should now detail how parents and carers will be engaged throughout, as a key influencer of young people’s career decisions”.
Our parent launch introduces parents/carers to the programme and what their child will be learning. Our next steps event details how parents/carers can support their child going forwards. Our parent/carer Hub allows parents to follow along with their child’s work throughout the programme.
The Scholars Programme is designed to support middle to high-attaining pupils from underrepresented backgrounds experience first hand what it is like to be a university student. Through introducing pupils to PhD experts, the programme breaks down barriers that can surround academia, increasing academic skills, university knowledge and a sense of belonging in higher education. This supports the benchmark’s guidance that young people should be supported to navigate their concerns about any barriers to career progression they may experience.
Benchmark 3 also places an emphasis on increased collection of aspiration and intended destination data. We provide you with an impact report at the end of the programme, which is articulated to meet statutory regulations for Ofsted and shows individualised data for each young person.
On The Scholars Programme, PhD experts expand students’ knowledge beyond the curriculum, introducing them to engaging topics from ‘What is Fairness?’ to Japanese Cinema.
Throughout the programme our PhD tutors become role models for pupils, demonstrating first-hand how a love for learning can lead to a career in academia. This meets the requirement that all subjects and courses should now contain opportunities to learn about links into different careers.
The programme also enables school staff to develop by taking a lead on a careers programme within school, aligning with Benchmark 4’s guidance that careers should now form part of the school’s ongoing staff development programme for teachers and all staff who support young people.
Pupils on the programme work closely with PhD researchers, gaining insight into academic careers and research professions through meaningful interactions. The programme is clearly structured in its delivery and objectives, removing the burden of creating an opportunity for students away from schools.
The Scholars Programme gives pupils a meaningful, two-way experience of university-style learning through a series of seven tutorials. At the end of the programme, students celebrate their achievements at a graduation event hosted at a university campus. During this event your pupils will engage in a campus tour, an information and guidance session and have the opportunity to speak with university student ambassadors.
Additionally, the programme places a strong emphasis on reflection and evaluation, highlighted in Benchmark 7, encouraging pupils to articulate their learning and aspirations after each session and the graduation event – supporting personal development and careers thinking. We also provide materials to support you to run Scholars Programme sessions and assemblies in school, allowing pupils to share their experiences of the programme more widely.
I really enjoyed participating in the Scholars Programme and it’s made me want to work harder and aim for a more ambitious choice in higher education. Now it feels like an attainable goal and I’m hopeful I can challenge myself to do better.