The best way to support learners from under-represented groups in your college to go to HE, is to ensure that your staff that have the ability to support them to make the right decisions. The NEON Summer Symposium, NEON Working Groups, Seminars, the Access Academy Training and our Postgraduate Certificate qualification in access practice, all provide a range of opportunities to support your staff to develop their knowledge and skills and for you to meet your commitment to their continuing professional development in a cost effective way.
Further education colleges are the drivers of participation in HE by learners from under-represented groups. Much of this work is going unrecognised and this commitment missed by many outside of the FE sector. Being a member of NEON, profiling your work our weekly NEON News best practice feature and nominating your learners and activities in our annual Awards, will allow you to start giving your access work the profile it deserves.
FE colleges, as the drivers of widening access in HE, must be able to shape the environment in which widening access is defined and delivered. The best way to do this is by being part of the only national ‘access mission group’. We have six different working groups in areas of access from supporting progression of learners from Access courses to HE, to mentoring to widen access. These Groups will shape what widening access means in practice. Our weekly NEON News, our Policy Briefings and our Digital Community give you the ability to be part of the national dialogue on access.