Why us?
Educational experience
As the lead mentor for Aspire Educational Mentoring, I have been involved in Sixth Form education for nearly 20 years and have successfully led an “Outstanding” Sixth Form in Essex for the majority of those. Through my roles as Director of Sixth Form, Assistant Headteacher and Associate Deputy Headteacher, I have developed very successful support programmes for university and apprenticeship progression, a number of which have been adopted by other schools.
Having worked with a diverse range of schools, Russell Group universities and the University Admissions Service (UCAS) on various projects, I know that students from underprivileged backgrounds who are often both financially and culturally deprived, do not receive the same level of support when it comes to university and apprenticeship applications. This includes choosing courses, developing and producing high quality and competitive applications and preparing for interviews, all of which significantly impacts their life chances. My experience of mentoring hundreds of students through this process has allowed them to reach their aspirational goals of gaining offers from the most competitive universities in the UK and overseas, or apprenticeships at prestigious multinational companies.
Professional skills
In addition, these young people have not had the opportunity to develop career-ready skills as they lack the family connections or ability to pay for immersive experiences that aim to develop such abilities, for example work experience or skills workshops, all of which impacts their future employment prospects. Instead, they are solely reliant on teachers and educational role models to provide access to these opportunities, and perhaps not surprisingly, many schools in disadvantaged areas just simply lack the resources to provide this level of support. Unfortunately, this gap has been further exacerbated by the significant disruption caused by the pandemic, disproportionately impacting those from the most challenging backgrounds. Our programme helps to fill these gaps through structured professional workshops and mentoring to develop skills such as communication, leadership, organisation and networking.