Virtual events, resources and more in the May 2021 edition of the Linking London Uni Connect Outreach Hub bulletin
May Edition
Welcome to the May edition of the Linking London NCOP Outreach Hub bulletin! This month we focus on virtual events and resources and opportunities that can help you support students remotely and in person. We (Jess and Melanie) are busy working from home and welcome questions/requests for help or support - our email addresses are at the bottom of the bulletin.
Key Outreach Hub Info
BTEC Support Package
Our package of support for Level 3 BTEC students went out last week and included the below videos. Please do share with students and colleagues and if you have any feedback please do complete the feedback form here.
Nursing & Midwifery Event for Staff - May 18th 11am
An online event for college staff who are supporting Level 3 students decide on their next steps towards Nursing & Midwifery, as well as more general AHP subjects. We have a panel of representatives from 3 universities to discuss their subject offering in the field and how they recommend supporting students who are starting to think about life after Level 3. Each panellist will speak for about 10 minutes to introduce their institution and give some advice and then there will be 15-20 mins for Q&A. This even would be suitable for careers staff as well as tutors for Level 3 Health and Social Care, Nursing, or Midwifery courses (including Access to Nursing, BTEC Health and Social Care, etc). Sign up to receive a Teams invite here.
Amazing Apprenticeships & the Education Skills Funding Agency Resources: T Levels: resources webinar - 5th May- Join this webinar to hear from the Amazing Apprenticeships team and T Levels team about the new resources (below) and how they can be best used in schools and colleges to introduce and share information about T Levels with your students, staff, parents and governors. T Level staff digital toolkit T Level activity pack for students T Level staff room posters T Level summer plan - includes activity suggestions for students, staff, governors and parents to explore T Levels during the summer term of 2021
Student Competitions
Screenskills The Secret Story Draw New competition to increase representation in animation - the scheme is dedicated to placing creatives of colour into some of the country’s best animation studios and is open to illustrators and animators from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Next Generation Economics Competition
This competition asks students in years 10-13 to submit a letter to the FCDO Chief Economist addressing one of two questions - click here for the questions and to enter
The competition is aiming to tackle a lack of diversity in the economics profession by reaching students who would not otherwise consider studying economics.
The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers STEM Competition - submissions open this week
The competition recognises and rewards young people's achievements in all areas of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), whilst providing them with the opportunity to build their skills and confidence in project-based work.
Goldsmiths, University of London Young Writer Competition
Become the next Young Writer (a short story writing competition for creative writers), Young Columnist (for journalists with a historical angle), or Young Anthropologist (for writing about identity and culture)
Click here for further information on how to apply
HEI Virtual Events & Tours
Birkbeck College, UoL will are holding a virtual open day on the 24th June
Brunel University London will detail next open day details here
Goldsmiths, UoL - register for their virtual open day on the 26th June here
University of Greenwich have an open day on the 26th June
London Institute of Banking & Finance have a virtual drop in session on May 4th
London Metropolitan University will detail open events here
King's College London - open days will take place between 2-8 June
Kingston University London - sign up for their virtual open day on June 16th here
Middlesex University London - sign up for their next open event on the 12th June here
New College of the Humanities are running a virtual open day on the 10th July sign up here
London South Bank University - sign up to receive information on their next open day here
Ravensbourne University London detail their upcoming virtual open day on the 26th June here
University of Roehampton - have an open event on the 26th May here
SOAS, UoL are holding an open day on the 5th June, sign up here
St Mary's University, Twickenham, London are holding an open day on the 15th May, sign up here
Queen Mary, UoL are running open days on the 25-26 June
University of the Arts London have a range of undergraduate events here starting in May on subject areas including illustration, theatre design, fine art and more
UCL - Register details for their next open day here
University of East London have an open event on 12th June
University of West London are running a virtual open day on May 26th
University of Westminster are hosting a virtual open dayon June 12th
Brunel have also released lots of downloadable subject introductions for students
Greenwich are running a student finance explained webinar, focusing on bursaries and scholarships, sign up here, and a series of twilight lectures in May which can be viewed and booked here
GoingToUni has been launched by City, University of London, offering a range of different resources to help support students in their journey to HE
University of the Arts London insights summer school applications are now open, sign up here
University of the Arts London are also running an event on the 12th May, covering how students can best research creative courses at universities online, register for the event here
St Mary's University Twickenham are offering a taster academic session on acting/tech theatre on the 12th May, sign up here
University of Westminster are launching "Westminster Wednesdays" which has events up to June 2021 of weekly taster sessions and masterclasses. View the schedulehere
UCL are running "Study Prep," a free online course for Year 13s who are preparing to study at university in this uncertain time
St George's, University of London have pulled together some useful advice for students wishing to apply to courses in Medicine, with a particular focus on making applications stand out when work experience opportunities are harder to come by during the COVID crisis, take a look here
University of London have released dates for their institution's taster courses. Birkbeck College, Goldsmiths, UCL, Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, SOAS and Royal Holloway are all participating so far, click here to book
Subject Specific & Future Options Support
The London Careers Festival runs from the 28th June to the 2nd July. The event will include 40+ skills and employer webinars, visit here for more information
Insight into University is an online course designed to enable students to experience STEM at university and the career opportunities it can lead to, sign up here
Pure Potential offers students subject specific personal statement examples, view the library here
Student Stream brings together useful video content for students, featuring advice, help and expert knowledge from universities and colleges across the UK, search the catalogue here
Pearson College London are running The Enterprise Festival for students interested in pursuing a career in Business
Disability Rights UK have released their Get Ahead Newsletter, co-edited with and for young people to help disabled students find information and resources on post-16 education, training and work
Escape Studios (Pearson College London) have released a digital guide for students interested in creative careers in Visual Effects, Animation and Game Art
All recordings from National Careers Week are available here
Unifrog are running a Subject Discovery Series throughout May. Subjects include Economics, Law, Business and Hospitality and Art & Design, view them all and sign up here. Past webinars can also be found there.
Amazing Apprenticeships & Not Going to Uni have teamed up to launch a parents and carers podcast to help them in providing career advice
IntoHealthcare have release the recording of their session focusing on Multi-Mini Interviews to support students
The RAF have made their careers webinar dedicated to international women's day available here
My HE Plus has a large collection of resources to help students explore topics within a range of subjects and give them an introduction to the fundamentals of those subjects, explore them here
Linklaters have launched a self paced virtual work experience for students to help them explore the world of commercial law, more information here
EY are running a Smart Futures programme - a 10 month paid programme with work experience during school breaks, more information here
Nuffield Research Placements - Provide engaging, hands-on research projects for year 12 students interested in a career in STEM
NHS Live Virtual Work Experience - supporting all aspiring healthcare students with work experience opportunities during the pandemic
Hunter Bevan have extended their marketing virtual work experience programme, download the brief on their website
Barclays Lifeskills is free for students to sign up to and offers students an opportunity to gain work experience and build essential skills needed for the workplace
The RCGP has launched Observe GP, an interactive video platform providing work experience insights into the role of a GP
Brighton and Sussex Medical School are running a course that provides students with "virtual" work experience in Medical settings. The course will help students understand the NHS and how to reflect on work experience
Workfinder helps students find remote work experience opportunities
Prospects have a dedicated page with advice on using social media to job hunt
Forage have virtual work experience programmes that students can apply for
Apprenticeship Resources
Virgin Media have online insight days into their apprenticeship opportunities here - next one is May 6th
UCAS Discover Apprenticeships Event
Sign up here to hear from current apprentices about their experiences and get expert advice on choosing options after leaving school or college.
All About Apprenticeships have released their Parents & Carers Pack which includes the latest apprenticeship information & advice for parents, supported by the National Apprenticeship Service
Staff Events & CPD
Join the ESFA traineeships team on May 11th to hear the latest news and information about traineeships. This webinar is designed for teachers, careers professionals and anyone else with an interest in supporting more young people to access traineeships, sign up here
Save the date for the HE student support seminar on the 8/9 September, where Higher Education Providers (HEPs) and the Student Loans Company (SLC) can come together to share insight and knowledge of the student finance system and how it interacts with the student experience of education. Further details will be released in July
Amazing Apprenticeships have shared their Teacher & Career Adviser Webinar recordings from last summer here and their ASK programme has been launched to help students in preparing for the transition to their next phase of employment, training or education. Colleges can request support from the team here
The NHS have released their NHS Support Fund HEI toolkit to help staff promote the NHSLSF to their students
The Education & Training Foundation have produced a range of CPD and webinars that are available online for staff throughout May
EMSI have released the slides exploring the UK labour market in 2020 and what happened, view them here
The Students Loan Company relay important information in their bulletin here
The Social Mobility Barometer 2021 gives a timely snapshot of perceptions of where the coronavirus pandemic has impacted most, who has suffered and what needs to be done by government and others
The CEC have released resources that explore ideas and good practice when working with parents in these challenging times
Prospects have released the "What do Graduates Do?" Report which offers insight and analysis from the UK's largest HE survey
Careermap have made available a range of webinars that can be shared with your students:
UCAS have made their adviser guide for 2021 available here
UniTasterDays has released its teachers' guide to university in 2021 to support university guidance that is provided in colleges and schools. It's free to download here
Success at School have developed an article examining the future of work for your students - view it here
Advancing Access have a plethora of staff CPD resources available for free. These resources are especially useful for supporting students who are applying to Russell Group institutions. Register for a free account here to access these resources
We love receiving feedback both positive and constructive. Do drop us an email if you've got any feedback for us.
We will be working collaboratively with London colleges to improve the social mobility of college learners by widening participation into and through higher education. We are here to support London college staff, including teachers and advisers in a number of ways. This includes:
Acting as a point of contact and support for college careers advisers to find out more about HE outreach activities in London, as well as brokering support to existing or new provision where needed.
Developing a range of new resources for advisers and teachers as well as delivering staff development events.
Signposting to useful sources of information and support and providing information and advice about HE including higher and degree apprenticeships.
We want college and HE staff to shape our support offer to ensure we are addressing genuine needs.
A word from us...
We are here for you! Get in touch if you have any questions about higher education, including higher level apprenticeships. By way of example, to date we have received requests from college staff for mapping university entry requirements for BTEC and Access courses, LMI forecasts, help with identifying specific outreach support and higher level apprenticeship mapping.
The London National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP) is part of the Uni Connect programme funded by the Office for Students. AccessHE, Aimhigher London and Linking London* work with staff in schools and colleges across London to help increase awareness among young Londoners of the opportunities available in higher education. Linking London works exclusively with staff in London sixth form colleges and further education colleges.
*Linking London, based at Birkbeck, University of London, is an established partnership of London higher education institutions, colleges and other members dedicated to improving social mobility for college learners through education.
If you want further information on why you are receiving this email please get in touch with Melanie (melanie.green@bbk.ac.uk) or Jess (jess.brown@linkinglondon.ac.uk)
