One Awards Access to HE Forum 2019
13th June 2019 Date of publication
One Awards held their 2019 Access to HE Forum at St Peters Campus, University of Sunderland on Tuesday 11th June 2019.
The event focused on current issues affecting Access to Higher Education, with keynote speakers, workshops and Celebration of Student Achievement. The Forum also enables networking opportunities with Access to HE providers, representatives from Higher Education, moderators and other stakeholders.
One Awards Managing Director Fabienne Bailey welcomed attendees to the event, gave update on One Awards and the wider NOCN Group and introduced the first film from our Marketing Campaign to raise the profile of the Access to Higher Education Diploma (to view the video please click this link).
Julie Mizon, Access Manager at QAA gave the first keynote speech of the event, providing feedback on the QAA key statistics 2017-18 covering, demographics of students, top five subjects that students go onto study after completing their Diploma which are nursing, social sciences, business, education and arts. Julie also confirmed that six months after completing their Diploma 90% of Access to HE Learners were in employment or further education, which is a brilliant statistic.
A Question Time panel consisting of representatives from QAA, Higher and Further Education, One Awards and a former Access to HE student responded to question relating to Access to HE, this raised lots of additional questions and feedback from the audience on how best to prepare students for Higher Education courses in the 21st Century, to enable progression to a wider range of HE courses.
The second keynote speech was from Professor Sue Black OBE, titled 'If I can do it, so can you!' Her inspiring and motivating story of one women's determination to succeed! Professor Black spoke about her learning journey overcoming adversity, passionate campaign to save Bletchley Park, the tech mums project she has set up to provide technology education opportunities to women throughout the country and her prescription for success.
This was followed by the Recognition of Achievement Awards, celebrating Access to HE student's achievements on their Diploma. Awards were presented in two categories, 'Outstanding Academic Achievement' and 'Outstanding Commitment to Study' on the Access to HE Diploma. The awards were presented to students who completed their Access to HE Diploma last summer; their tutors have highlighted their achievements in both categories as being outstanding for a number of reasons and so we wanted to take the opportunity to recognise their remarkable accomplishments by inviting them along to collect their award. The Awards were presented by Julie Mizon, Access Manager at the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) the regulator for the Access to HE Diploma.
The learners recognised were:
- Winner ‘Outstanding Academic Achievement on the Access to HE Diploma’
Alex Walton, Access to HE Diploma (Humanities and Social Science), Nominated by Jo Marriott, New College Durham - Runner Up ‘Outstanding Academic Achievement on the Access to HE Diploma’
Emma Bartram, Access to HE Diploma (Humanities and Social Science), Nominated by Elaine Renton, Sunderland College - Nominee ‘Outstanding Academic Achievement on the Access to HE Diploma’
Fiona Knighton, Access to HE Diploma (Health), Nominated by Michelle Kelso, Redcar and Cleveland College - Winner ‘Outstanding Commitment to Study on the Access to HE Diploma’
Jose Shesamundu, Access to HE Diploma (Social Science), Nominated by Sabine Gretscher, Newcastle City Learning - Runner Up ‘Outstanding Commitment to Study on the Access to HE Diploma’
Nikki Macleod, Access to HE Diploma (Humanities and Social Sciences), Nominated by Jo Marriott, New College Durham Matthew Shervington, Access to HE Diploma (Health), Nominated by Shirley Jones, Sunderland College
Catherine McCluskey, Access to HE Diploma (Health), Nominated by Fay Cavagin, Gateshead College - Nominee ‘Outstanding Commitment to Study on the Access to HE Diploma’
Joanne Edgson, Access to HE Diploma (Health), Nominated by Michelle Kelso, Redcar and Cleveland College
Claire Gamble, Access to HE Diploma (Health), Nominated by Susan Gooding, Stockton Riverside College
The event continued into the afternoon with workshops covering:
Supporting students and developing academic skills: new approaches and practical solutions
This session explored managing the development of academic skills and student support that will ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and engage students without undue burden on tutors, with Fay Cavagin and Alison Zucker, Access to HE Moderators at One Awards.
The Elephant in the room’ – Supporting students together with Mental Health
Julie Henderson and Lyndsay Robson from Educational Partnership North East address ‘The Elephant in the Room’ of Mental Health, to increase awareness, explore ways to address the barriers to enable students to feel understood and supported.
Educating paramedics and nurses of the future
Lecturers Mark Willis and Yvonne Hindmarsh on how the University of Sunderland is educating paramedics and nurses of the future using innovative teaching methods including simulation exercises, this was a very interactive session!
Educating Physiotherapists and Occupational Therapists of the future
University of Sunderland Senior Lecturers Chris Carter, Brett Lambert and Cath Turner provided an interactive demonstration on the skills and knowledge required by physiotherapists and occupational therapists in a drive towards a preventative Health and Social Care Agenda.
Content Creation Workshop – Podcast and vodcast for beginners
John Earland Access to HE Manager at One Awards provides an hands-on session on how to produce a podcast or vodcast that can be used as materials/engaging content to support students.
We would like to thank all of those who attended, and supported the event, our hosts University of Sunderland and finally special congratulations to the students who were nominated in and winners of the awards, such inspiring stories!
