Arrival Education — Activity Post:
Sep — 3rd Nov 2020
The start of the new academic year is always a busy period at Arrival Education, as we launch our social mobility programmes for year 12 students (16–17 YOA) who have just started sixth-form, as well as bringing the previous year’s Access Network Programme to a close. Add in a pandemic, with so much uncertainty week-to-week, and with programmes needing to go fully online, and the challenges for the team have been significant.
Our social mobility programme for Year 12s, the Access Network (2020–21).
With additional resources to support the Access Network provided by Tesco, and needing to create a really engaging online model, the team decided to undertake the first significant programme upgrade since 2017. Our two key areas of focus have been:
- Expand the number of places available to students and,
- Increase engagement by offering more experiences; connecting with AE alumni and rolling out our Success Ready development model.
With many of our assemblies needing to go online and the whole programme to be run in a virtual format, we were uncertain what the application rate would be. And once students had applied and been offered a place, we had no idea how many of them would join our online induction sessions. Additionally, the first Success Skill workshops of the 2020–21 year, run with our partners Mimecast and Investec.
With 3 new schools (St Thomas the Apostle, Cardinal Pole and Trinity Academy) joining 3 long-standing partners (Alperton, Brampton Manor and Langdon Park), the team really pushed the boundaries, resulting in a record number of applications and places offered. Of the 235 students who applied, 125 were offered places, up 40 from the previous year. 117 attended a one-hour induction held after school run by AE and members of our alumni network. And 77 have so far attended three workshops run on Time Management and Stress Management with Mimecast and Investec. This represents almost a 4-fold increase in workshop engagement vs the same period in 2019. But it wasn’t just the students where the numbers have increased. Moving to an online format has also helped more volunteers from our Corporate partners engage in their company’s CSR partnership with Arrival Education, with 34 volunteers joining our 90 min workshops so far.
To help manage the increase in numbers, we were delighted to be able to bring on board a new member of the team, and AE alumni, Sarah Msouhli in a Junior Programmes Team Co-ordinator role. Sarah has proved adept at managing many students and their myriad questions!
The Access Network 2019–20: In early October, the team also delivered our first online Access Network Celebration event for the 2019–20 Access Network. 52 participants from the network and from our corporate partners, Investec, Mimecast and Artemis, came together for 90 minutes of celebration, reflection and acknowledgement. “Wholesome, inspiring, fulfilling and provided a much-needed energy and perspective boost” was just some of the feedback from Corporate Volunteers. A real highlight was hearing from AE alumni, and Investec Junior Private Banker, Channon Allen-Gulley who was in the same position as the students 8 years ago.
Our Investment Programmes: To widen access to the world of Investing and Wealth Management, our cornerstone Social Mobility CSR partners, Investec and Artemis, run investment simulation games for Year 12 students. Invest for Success (Investec) and the Artemis Profit Hunt (Artemis), run for 5 months from Autumn-Spring. Students work in teams of 4–5 to manage portfolios of shares, with the support and coaching of mentors from the respective businesses.
With a record number of 349 applications from 6 schools (including North Liverpool Academy), we launched Invest for Success in October, with 10 teams of 5 students, supported by 20 members of the Investec Wealth team.
The Artemis Profit Hunt will be launching in November, offering 55 places to students.
A key focus for this year was to increase the number of female applicants. Some specific targeted changes to marketing comms have meant that the number of female applicants across both programmes has increased from 31% to 41%.
Alongside the launch of these new programmes, the team also ran 2 Early Years’ Talent Events:
- Peel Hunt Unlocked, an Insight workshop with Investment Bank Peel Hunt for 16 students to learn about the organisation, meet the team and receive some much-appreciated interview practice.
- Session 4 of our 7-month programme with GSK, GSK Unlocked: In this session 18 AE participants and 25 GSK colleagues worked together to discuss one of GSK’s key expectations, Accountability, with real-life examples, coaching conversations and interview practice.
As with all of our work, investing time in the programme design and student onboarding should pay dividends in the months to come. Moving to an online format has opened up opportunities but has also required significant extra investment in terms of time, to manage much more complex logistics and to ensure that events are engaging and impactful.
