ESF Widening Participation through Skills Project

The Widening Participation through Skills Project aims to improve pathways from vocational programmes to higher education
iPads in Teaching
ESF European Social Fund

This project is being part-funded by the European Structural and Investment Fund 2014-2020 Programme in England.

The European Social Fund
 
The ESF Widening Participation through Skills Project has been successful in receiving £2.9 million of European Social Funding as part of the 2014–2020 Growth Programme.
The Widening Participation through Skills Project aims to improve pathways from vocational programmes to higher education and to increase access for all to higher level skills training through innovative and flexible access routes which address barriers to participation. This project will particularly target those least likely to access HE including part-time employees, older workers and other disengaged and disadvantaged groups.
The project partnership is managed by the University of Plymouth. Delivery partners are Truro and Penwith College, the University of Exeter, Adult Education, Cornwall Council, Cornwall Neighbourhoods for Change and Cornwall Film Festival.

ESF project objectives 

Project targets: to engage with 4,027 participants, 804 participants gaining a level 3 or above or a unit of level 3 and above qualification, 398 participants gaining a level 2 or above or a unit of a level 2 and above qualification.
Priority groups: employed females, participants aged 50+, ethnic minorities, those with disabilities and single adult household with dependent children.
Math students using a mixture of old (boards) and new (iPad mini) learning technologies.
To achieve the project targets and engage with project priority groups the partnerships will be:
  • Targeting disadvantaged groups and neighbourhoods.
  • Developing pathways from vocational programmes to foundation degree and above.
  • Providing an enabling fund to help reduce/remove barriers to participation.
This will be achieved through engagement and awareness raising, pre-access support, skills planning, taster activities, development and delivery of short course and modular provision and innovative methods of engaging and supporting disadvantaged learners.
The project is delivered across the whole of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly with particular interventions aimed at HE cold spots.
The focus of the project is working with employed or self-employed participants, a small proportion of participants can be unemployed or economically inactive, e.g. response to redundancy, higher level skills need. Participants should be without a relevant qualification at Level 4. There are no fixed prior attainment requirements. Activities must be delivered in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

Project policies

Partners

Below is a list of the ESF Widening Participation through Skills Project partner organisations