News: Hepp relaunches with a new offer
The Higher Education Progression Partnership (Hepp) is launching a new service for Sheffield City Region to encourage more young people and adults to progress into higher education.
Research has shown that less young people from Sheffield City Region progress into higher education than from other parts of the country. Hepp aims to dispel myths about higher education, especially for those families who have not had experience of higher education.
Hepp is funded by Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield and represents a longstanding partnership between both universities. It has recently gone through a refresh with new leadership and management and is launching a new offer focused on the pre-16 age group, from Year 7 to Year 11.
The core of the new offer is a ‘one-stop-shop’ of online resources for teachers and advisers in all 102 secondary schools across Sheffield City Region. This will expand to resources for primary schools over the course of the next year. The service will also grow to include resources for adult learners who have missed out on higher education.
Hepp Director, Mike Garnock-Jones, comments: “We’ve moved to an online resource because there isn’t one in Sheffield City Region. This will be the ‘go-to’ place for all advisers and teachers to get impartial, current and accurate information for the young people they are working with.”
Head of Hepp, Gemma Styles, adds: “For the first time we’re combining all the resources that the partnership offers into one place, an online repository, with resources of our own and resources from both universities. The aim is to try and bring everything into one place for people, because this landscape can be very confusing.”
The online service will include presentations, teachers’ notes, lesson plans, films, information booklets and handouts. By moving to an online offer, Hepp is able to ensure that all secondary schools across the region have access to high quality, accurate resources.
In addition to online resources, Hepp will offer face-to-face workshops for schools that need extra support. The workshops are based on three themes: the benefits of higher education; student finance; and choices and pathways.
Gemma Styles comments: “As a former teacher, I think the value to teachers and advisers of our offer is the high quality content that we can provide. Helping children and young people to explore their higher education options is really important but schools may not have time for it. We can make sure that a school has got excellent resources that they can refer to.”
Schools that want more information about the new Hepp offer should contact their Regional Activities Coordinator