NEON Professional Course: Breaking Ground, December 2025 – July 2026

Access Academy Training

  • Date

      09/12/2025 - 09/07/2026

  • Time

      10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Book this event

Breaking Ground is our course for those working in education who want to develop a more in depth understanding of widening access. The course is made up of eight, online, two-hour sessions which will be held on a monthly basis and will run from December to July. Each session will look at a different aspect of widening access and participants will have access to a brand new Teams group, forming a community of practice where they can build valuable networks and mutually support each other. Upon successful completion of the course and a reflective learning diary, participants will earn a NEON Associate Professional accreditation.   

This course is suitable for you if you are:   

  • Currently working in widening access or student recruitment. The course will be particularly relevant for colleagues who have started working in access or recruitment in the past three years.  
  • Currently working within the areas of student transition, student success or graduate employability and are involved in Access and Participation Plan (APP) related projects.  
  • An academic with a specific interest in widening access, or with responsibility for widening access within their subject area.  
  • A teacher with responsibility for links with higher education organisations.   
  • Working in a Students Union, engaging with educational projects in the local community.  
  • Employed as a student host or ambassador.  

Delivery mode: Online sessions  

Number of sessions: 8  

Duration of sessions: 2 hours  

Facilitator: Dr Jon Rainford, Lecturer and Staff Tutor, School of Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport, The Open University 

 

 Course Content: 

Session  Learning outcomes  
1. Widening access policy 
Tuesday 9 December 2025
  • Understand the historical development of access 
  • Place work within current policy context  
2. Why do inequalities in education exist and why should we be concerned with addressing them? 
Thursday 15 January 2026
  • Understand the factors that cause inequalities in education and their impact
  • Apply theories of educational inequality to current work
  • Identify learner characteristics that make them most likely to experience educational inequality and understand the concept of intersectionality
  • Understand the benefits of addressing inequalities for:
    • UK Government
    • Regions
    • Universities
    • Schools
    • Learners
3. Addressing inequalities pre and post 18
Tuesday 10 February 2026
  • Consider how inequalities are addressed both prior to the age of 18 and for mature learners before they enter higher education
  • Be able to provide a rationale for why activities need to be targeted
  • Have an overview of the measures used in schools and colleges and explain their relationship to widening access work
  • Understand the specific challenges faced by mature learners and how these can be addressed
  • An understanding of the key inequalities that exist at each stage of the student lifecycle and the theoretical explanations
  • An understanding of the key inequalities that exist at each stage of the student lifecycle and the theoretical explanations
  • Have an overview of the steps being taken by their own organisation to address inequality
  • An understanding of the impact the curriculum and pedagogy have on inequalities and student retention
4. Widening access – what approaches should we use? 
Thursday 12 March 2026
  • Be able to identify different approaches to support learners (knowledge of HE, experience of HE, belonging, attainment, careers) and the specific strategies that can be employed
  • Have an awareness of the benefits and challenges of each approach
  • Define student recruitment activities and widening access activities
  • Explain the major differences between student recruitment and widening access
  • Identify the commonalities between student recruitment and widening access activities
  • Understand the importance of continual engagement.
5. Developing interventions
Tuesday 14 April 2026
  • Identify the steps involved in planning an intervention
  • Appreciate the importance of evaluation and its place within project design
  • Be able to develop a theory of change (TOC) for different interventions and understand its place within the evaluative framework
  • Gain an overview of different evaluation methods and how they can be used to measure impact
6. Addressing inequalities in practice
Thursday 14 May 2026
  • Hearing from four HEIs, learners will consider four separate approaches from four separate organisations, each one addressing a different stage. The stages considered will be:
    • Access
    • Student transition
    • Retention
    • Student success
7. Influence, influencers and influencing the influencers
Tuesday 9 June 2026
  • List the key influencers for learners and rank them by their impact
  • Be able to describe the characteristics of key influencers and the impact that has upon their own attitudes
  • Critically assess current approaches to influencing influencers and be able to identify improvements
8. Course review
Thursday 9 July 2026
  • Reflect upon their learning and experience during the course, how the course has supported them and be able to identify the ongoing support that may be needed to support their development.