News: A New Way of Working at Information Stand Events
At Hepp we are regularly invited to attend school events such as Y8/Y9/post-16 Options Evenings, Careers Fayres or Progression Evenings.
However, we’ve found that when we attend these events with just a static information stand, our impact is limited with the students who most need to hear our message. If someone has already ruled out university then they’re not going to approach our stand and talk to us. Often when students and parents do come over, their first question is “who are you?”. Sometimes they’ve noticed the Sheffield Hallam University and University of Sheffield logos on our banner stands and think that’s who we’re representing (while they are our funding partners, we impartially promote higher education in general).
Therefore, moving forward, our partner universities have agreed that Hepp will only attend Information Stand events IF we are delivering a talk or carousel of talks. This will give us the opportunity to speak proactively to a wider range of students, including those who aren’t considering university, making them aware of the benefits of higher education and the facts about student finance.
There are a number of ways schools can utilise Hepp at these events in the future, for example:
- running a carousel of talks in an easily accessible classroom or hall, at the same time as the information stand event. This could just be Hepp or other providers/organisations could be invited in as well to produce a fuller program (e.g. apprenticeships, Army Careers, etc.)
- including Hepp in the introduction talk to the evening to give a quick myth-busting insight into and overview of higher education. This could be in person or by incorporating one or more of the short films we are currently producing.
An official guidance sheet will be sent out soon, plus your Regional Activities Coordinator is always available to discuss our involvement in your specific events.