Group Discussion Exercises

Area, Regional and National . . . . .

• Where and how do FE Colleges fit into the Aimhigher picture?

• How does Aimhigher relate to the widening participation agenda?

• Who the key players are and how to contact them. See Contact Details

• Who to contact to organise work in a range of schools in a particular area.

• What's happenning in the LIFE area? See LIFE Strands

• What different people involved in Aimhigher actually do and how do they feel about the project.

• How the Regional end of Aimhigher fits in with the Area partnerships.

• How much collaboration is there between Areas and across Strands?

• What projects are currently on the go? See AHSW Activities

• How will I get to know all the relevant people in every institution?

• When and where are meetings? See Diary Where are minutes of past meetings?

• What is the difference between regional and national?

• Functional relationships between national, regional, and area.

• A better understanding of the national and regional structures and their role / remit.

• How do all the Areas fit in? See Regional Induction Presentation

• Updates on the staff lines of communication, given staff turnover.

• Levels of decision making? School/colleges Area plans relationship. See Key Issues, Schools

• Put faces to names.

• Find out more about the other activities the different Areas carry out.

• How does the region link with the Penninsula - develop LAC Cornwall.

• More about the structure of the regional management. A better understanding of the bigger picture. See Regional Activities

• To understand my role within Aimhigher.

• How I fit into the overall project and what others' objectives are.

• What is the overlap with Excellence in Cities? [EiC and Aimhigher P4P are now integrated as Aimhigher.]

• Clarity of structure - who is involved and who does what? See Peninsula Programme but this is for Peninsula only.

• Funding - how Aimhigher Southwest allocate money. [ ESF funding is for summer schools only with matched funding from Aimhigher. Aimhigher funding is allocated by steering groups at Area and Regional level.]

• How many different Aimhigher sub-regions are there? [3 in the South West and 45 in England.]

Evaluation . . . . .

• How is information tracked/recorded for widening participation as a working formula?

• A better understanding of how we can assess the outcomes of Aimhigher's big targets.

• How does Aimhigher measure the success of its programmes locally/regionally? See Action on Access Impact Measures

• Who collates Aimhigher data (proof of Aimhigher having impact) and how can we access it? See Measuring Progress

• How doe we measure the success of our activities, the Area programme, the Regional programme?

• Who sets the targets for the region and how are these decided? [We do through negotiation and open decision taking.]

• How can I reach adults?

• How do we offer events to the Aimhigher cohort without being accused of discrimination? [We are levelling the playing field.]

• Selection of students - what criteria is being used in practice and how is it being monitored?

• E-Mentoring. How does it work and how effective is it?

• How the 1:1 post-intervention support role can/may be more widely understood/used/accessed by practitioners.

• Pathways into Connexions to raise awareness.

• My time is limited - what can I do that is effective? Who do I talk to for advice? See WP Skills in the SW

• How do we ensure that we raise aspirations of excluded groups if they do not fall into the C/D category for GCSE results?

• How should universities change to create fiar access and encourage diversity? See Good Practice for Student Retention

• What is the link from Aimhigher to regional initiatives to expand HE? [The social class gap.]

• Why do we need to widen participation? See Facts and Stats

Activities . . . . .

• I want to know more about the range of school activities and the rationale behind it. See Activity Themes 1

• What is available to a typical targeted young person? See Activities by Themes

• What events are other colleges organising for their students? See Pen 1 and Pen 4 and LIFE 1 and West 2

• What are Lifelong Learning Networks? See Lifelong Learning Networks

People . . . . .

• Who is involved? How can I help coordinate? See Contact Details

• I am looking for best practice from other FE Colleges, i.e. how they both assess and deliver the Aimhigher network.

• Who are Action on Access? See Action on Access website

• The Aimhigher co-ordinator's job description is now different and more extensive that the ones FE Colleges are working from at the moment. Which one should we be following and how much time should be allocated?

• Resource directory of skills by Area and Region. See WP Skills in the SW

• This is only part of my part-time job (3 days per week). Are other people doing Aimhigher events as part of a full-time job? Does part-time give enough time? How much time is needed?

The Future . . . . .