A Game of Two Halves - NCOP Programme

A Game of Two Halves - Frederick Gough 2019

During the spring term of 2019, we ran a very successful project with Year 9 students at Frederick Gough School. Some of students who took part had no expectation at all of going to universities. The project called ‘A Game of Two Halves’ enabled us to show them what professions in sport entailed studying at university and how this is something they could enjoy and aspire to. This meant they were able to go home and talk about it with their families, and possibly open doors that would never have been opened before. 

A Game of Two Halves is a one term fully funded programme designed to promote an increased awareness of careers in sport, with the emphasis on jobs within the football industry, structured as follows:-  

Warm up – in school taster event to introduce and explore a number of contrasting job roles available within the football industry, eg sports journalist, physiotherapist, coach.  

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First half – Masterclasses. These are supported by professionals in a range of careers from the world of football. The purpose is to deepen understanding and knowledge of individual job roles and real life application of skills.  

 

Second half – inspirational visits to state of the art national venues to raise aspirations and broaden horizons, meeting industry professionals in the work place.  

Both the Coaching and Physio groups spent the day at St George’s Park. Home of English football. They explored the site and took part in gym and coaching sessions using the state of the art equipment.

 The Journalism group traveled to the Sky Studio HQ in London. They had a tour round and then completed filming activities at the Sky Academy. In a short period of time they planned, wrote, filmed and edited their own news programmes.

Such was the success of this programme, Frederick Gough School will be working with us once again this year. 

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National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP)

In the UK, there’s a sizeable disparity in the number of students progressing through to higher education by geographical location. National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP) is a partnership programme that connects universities with local schools. The programme, beginning back in January 2017, aims to encourage universities to work with schools to deliver outreach programmes that show students what higher education is all about. The formation of the NCOP comes as a result of a government pledge to:  

“Double the proportion of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in higher education by 2020; increase by 20 per cent the number of students in higher education from ethnic minority groups; [and] address the under-representation of young men from disadvantaged backgrounds in higher education.” 

NCOP works by creating networks of HE providers that target students aged 13-18 in low HE progression areas with projects that involve student ambassadors, trips to HE providers and open days. One such partnership is the Humberside Outreach Programme (HOP) and Study United, We are proud to be working alongside them to achieve the Government’s aims. We have been working together to raise the aspirations and attainment of young people who might not otherwise consider progression to higher education. The vast majority of young people with whom we work are from disadvantaged backgrounds or comprise first-generation higher education applicants, meaning they are the first in their immediate family to go to university.