In the spotlight: Hope McAdam, University of Sussex
This month as part of National Care Leavers month we’re meeting Hope McAdam, Widening Participation Outreach Project Lead at the University of Sussex, to find out more about her work with care experienced learners.
Tell us about your role
I work with local schools and colleges to deliver our widening participation (WP) activities. I run a number of outreach programmes for pre-16 learners, including Uni & You, our Primary Explorers programme, and a reading project to support year 7 students who are less confident readers. As part of my role, I’m also currently completing a Level 6 qualification to be a qualified Careers Advisor.
Tell us about Uni & U
Uni & U is our programme for young people in years 7-13 who are currently in or have experience of care, which we plan and deliver in partnership with the SLN. The aim is to support young people by making sure they are able to consider every option for their future and know where to go if going to university is something they want to find out more about. We run events throughout the year at the university as well as fun days for families and foster carers and this year we are planning a visit to an employer. As part of the programme the learners meet with our student ambassadors who themselves have experience of care.
What’s different about this than other programmes ?
The programme is specifically for young people in Sussex with experience of care; we work really closely with our local virtual schools, and it’s shaped by them, looking at what their learners might need and how we can best support them. We change the programme each year based on feedback we get from carers, learners and virtual school staff. The programme is fully funded by the university – we want to make sure there is no cost to get there or participate, for carers or learners. We are very flexible, and we recognise it can be difficult for young people for all sorts of reasons, and so we aim to minimise any barriers to attending. The transportation is arranged and paid for in advance. It’s also worth noting that part of the funding for Uni & U is available for individual CEIAG sessions for learners which are delivered by Get Career Confident Careers Advisers at school/college or online, for those who need 1:1 guidance.
What are the plans for this year?
We have a welcome event in November for brand new participants that haven’t yet had the chance to come to a Uni & U event. This is on 12th November and you and your learners and their carers can find out more by emailing uniandyou@sussex.ac.uk. Learners and carers will hear from current HE students, have a campus tour, an interactive taster session and find out about support available at HE for care leavers, especially financial supporting including bursaries and scholarships.
Which partners do you work with?
The Sussex Learning Network, the three Virtual Schools (Brighton & Hove, East and West Sussex), Get Career Confident and the national charity, Become.
How can schools and colleges get involved?
They can get in touch with us by emailing uniandyou@sussex.ac.uk. For each event we send emails with all the information to schools and colleges to share with staff, learners and carers. There is a registration link for carers to sign up for each event and when a learner is signed up we let the relevant Virtual School know. If anyone would like to speak with me, we can also arrange a phone conversation to speak with staff to go over any details.
What resources are available for learners that can’t attend events in person?
Learners can access the individual CEIAG sessions with Careers Advisers. They can also have individual sessions at the university, if staff get in touch with the Uni & U team we can arrange student shadowing, a visit to our campus and the opportunity to spend time with students studying a subject they are interested in. We also provide one to one support from our WP team for care experienced learners applying to university and again, this can be arranged by getting in touch with the Uni & U team.
We have a range of resources available to view online or download which have been made in partnership with the Sussex Learning Network and Become. These include three films made for care-experienced young people, by care-experienced young people. Whether learners are thinking about school, college, university or work, these films provide real stories, honest advice, and helpful tips to support next steps. They can be viewed here. There is also a booklet about options at 14, 16 and 18 for care experienced learners which can be accessed here.