Looking forward…2019
The Advice and Transition Team at Sheffield Hallam University is part of the wider Schools and Colleges Engagement Team. Our role involves engaging with students, mostly in Post 16 or college, along with their teachers and advisors.
We provide Schools and Colleges with a dedicated contact who will work with them throughout the academic year to build a tailored programme of engagement for their students. Our offer is called ‘UNI4U’ and includes sessions which cover applying to University, finance, accommodation and much more. We also offer support and CPD for teachers and advisors including our annual summer conference.
Reflecting on the last term
As we enter a new year, we’re taking the opportunity to reflect on everything we’ve done so far this academic year. Between September and December, we’ve met and engaged with a huge number of students over many visits both in and out of the University. It certainly was a busy first term of 2018/19 for our team and we took part in some brilliant events and visits. Here’s a snapshot of our highlights…
Becki: My highlight has been getting the Activity Officers into their role and out delivering in schools. Seeing their confidence and understanding of their role grow has been great.
Martin: Speaking at HELOA’s Apprenticeships CPD day and learning from other people working in this area has been a standout moment of this year so far. We also had the best attendance ever at our Apprenticeships Jobs Fair this November.
Eva: I’ve really enjoyed delivering sports taster days within the University and out in institutions. It’s been great to see so much interest in Sport from students. Seeing them grow throughout these visits and really engage with all the activities shows the passion and potential our team can offer to support these students.
Shereen: A highlight for me has been delivering a bespoke ‘Future Fest’ day for a Y11 cohort in a Sleaford school to raise aspirations for Higher Education progression. It was a great success and the school are looking to make it an annual event. It’s been a really busy term for us and we’ve managed to deliver a huge amount, mostly due to the support we show each other as a team.
Lucy: My biggest highlight would have to be just getting out and about, and delivering such a huge range of activities to lots of different schools.
Not only have we delivered a huge amount, but we’ve also received some amazing feedback from students we’ve engaged with over the last four months…
“I feel more confident about the interview process when going to uni”
““The member of SHU staff was knowledgeable and really brought the session to life”
“Amazing, useful, exciting, educational, interesting, great, fantabulous, informative”
Looking forward to the New Year
You would think that with all that excitement we’d be exhausted, but after a good rest over Christmas, we’re ready to turn our attention to 2019! Here are just a few of the things we’re looking forward to this year…
Shereen: I’m looking forward to exploring new locations and areas of work over the coming year. It will be interesting to look at new markets and the impact our team could have.
Lucy: I’m excited about the new events we’re going to be organising for our teachers and advisors in 2019
Martin: I’m hoping to raise awareness of Higher Degree Apprenticeships at Sheffield Hallam more widely and develop some new resources themed around this.
Eva: I’m most looking forward to building on existing projects to ensure we can offer the right level of support for all students, parents, teachers and advisors.
Becki: I’m really looking forward to trialling the new accommodation session the team has developed and implementing it into our existing suite of ‘UNI4U’ sessions.
Twitter Takeovers
As well as supporting students and their teachers and advisors in person, we are also going to be going online! We’ll be hosting a ‘Twitter Takeover’ of the @SHUOutreach account between the 11th and 15th of February. We’ll be showcasing some of our work throughout the week as well as holding a Q&A day on Friday the 15th to answer all you Higher Education questions. Our team are also excited to announce that we will be welcoming a new team member very soon!
We’ve loved working with our School and College contacts over the last few months but we’re always happy to meet new people too. If you’d like to find out more about how we can support students, teachers and advisors, contact us at sclo@shu.ac.uk or take a look at our web pages.
Wishing you a very happy New Year and a brilliant 2019 from the Advice and Transition Team at Sheffield Hallam University.
