Schools and Colleges
Outreach and Access
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Outreach and Access
What we do
At UEL, our Schools and Colleges Team empowers young people from Years 10 – 13 to make informed decisions about their education and career paths, helping them to thrive and succeed.
We offer meaningful, timely, and informative outreach programmes tailored to support students' unique needs. As a careers-led university, we incorporate our unique careers-first approach into all our programmes and activities.
We partner with local schools and colleges, as well as parents, local authorities, and organisations such as charities and social enterprises, to provide meaningful outreach opportunities. Together, we focus on supporting young people from underrepresented and widening participation backgrounds.
We collaborate with schools and colleges in our local boroughs, working closely with teachers, career advisers, heads of subject, and more.
- Years 10 and 11 - We run taster days, higher education awareness sessions and arrange visits by our student Curriculum Ambassadors to help secondary school pupils plan their futures.
- Post 16 - We work with local sixth forms and colleges to offer taster days, summer schools, subject-specific workshops and employability skills sessions, helping young people make informed choices about their careers.
- Careers fairs and higher education fairs. - we regularly attend careers events, higher education fairs and parents’ evenings. UEL’s student ambassadors are trained to answer questions about university, support young people with educational decisions and provide information on next steps into higher education. If you’d like us to attend an event please contact us.
Our dedicated Advice and Guidance Team also assists mature and returning learners, offering tailored advice on pre-entry and non-traditional routes into education.
Who we work with
Read our widening participation criteria
The primary goal of the University of East London Schools and Colleges is to bring new ideas, opportunities and experiences to young people from a widening participation background to. This encourages them to make informed decisions about higher education and their future careers, promoting social mobility.
When we talk about people from widening participation backgrounds, our focus is on young people who might:
- Have few or no immediate role models who have experience of higher education
- Be eligible for free school meals or pupil premium
- Be a looked after child, carer or care leaver
- Have a disability or special educational needs
- Be a refugee, estranged from their family, or come from a traveller community
- Be a pupil from a particular ethnicity
- Be a pupil from a military family background
- Live in an area that is economically disadvantaged or where few people progress into higher education
- Be a mature learner seeking to change career through a degree.
When we develop new partnerships to reach people from widening participation backgrounds, we work with institutions who meet specific criteria. In particular, we prioritise institutions that:
- Are located in a borough with high levels of deprivation
- Are located in a postcode that has low progression into higher education
- Have pupils attaining below average or well below average for progress 8 (secondary only)
- Have an above average number of pupils eligible for free school meals or a large proportion who are eligible for pupil premium (secondary only)
- Have an above average number of pupils whose first language is not English
- Have a higher percentage of pupils from white socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds or pupils that fall into the categories above.
- Have a higher percentage of pupils from a military family background
- Are a partner school or federation post 16 institution, and have signed a Service Level Agreement
Our team
- Yvonne Bentley - Head of Outreach and Access: Y.Bentley@uel.ac.uk
- Carol Berry - Partnership Manager - Post 16 Team: C.Berry@uel.ac.uk
- Tariq Patel - Partnership Manager - Secondary School Team: T.Patel2@uel.ac.uk
- Olashiji Ali-Arowosekila - Lead Partnership Officer - Post 16: O.Arowosekila@uel.ac.uk
- Rosie Gough - Lead Partnership Officer - Post 16: R.Gough@uel.ac.uk
- Lauren Keeble - Lead Partnership Officer - Post 16: L.Keeble@uel.ac.uk
- Charlotte Thwaites - Lead Partnership Officer - Secondary School Team: C.Thwaites@uel.ac.uk
- Ellie Downing - Lead Partnership Officer - Secondary School Team: E.Downing@uel.ac.uk
Stay in touch
Stay in touch with our newsletter – sign up today for your copy.
Or email the team on outreachandaccess@uel.ac.uk.
Careers, events and HE fairs
Our Schools and Colleges team regularly attend careers events, higher education fairs and parents’ evenings.
Curriculum Enhancement Through University Partnership
Academics and college staff work together to identify curriculum modules that can be delivered in partnership with UEL to see where value can be added.
Post 16
We work with local sixth form schools, further education colleges, delivering meaningful, informative, relevant and timely activities to young people.
Secondary schools
The Schools and Colleges Pre-16 team, delivers meaningful, informative and timely activities to young people in year groups 10-11.
Sixth Form Inductions
A supportive programme to ease new Year 12s into their first year of sixth form.
Your future degree taster
A great way for all post 16 students to experience a range of 45min interactive career related subjects at the University of East London
Your Future Summer School
We will be offering three-day on campus summer schools to current year 12/FE1/Level 3 students, aged 16 – 18, across a variety of subject areas.
Become a Partner School or College
Did you know your school or college can become a valued partner with the University of East London?
Outreach and Access Resources
Take a look at our package of free online resources to support students, teachers and career advisors remotely.
Subject workshops
We deliver subject workshops that enhance your post 16 students' futures and inspire their next steps into higher education.