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University and FKI team up
Posted on 27/06/2007
Loughborough Newsdesk
Loughborough University has joined forces with FKI plc, the parent company of the local BRUSH businesses, to give a taste of higher education to young care leavers " those who have spent time in the care of their local authority but are now moving on.
FKI plc supported a two-day summer school, on 20 and 21 June, which enabled the students from local schools to take part in a variety of activities designed to give them an insight into the many of aspects of university life.
A similar event held for the first time last year proved exceptionally successful. Nine students from Leicestershire and the East Midlands attended, all of whom have continued in education.
"We held a pilot event specifically for care leavers last year, in collaboration with the other two Leicestershire universities, and it was incredibly successful, says Kay Bridger, Loughborough Universitys widening participation officer. "We hope this years event proved to be just as rewarding for the students involved and, of course, FKIs support has meant we could offer more places than ever before.
"Only a very small percentage of care leavers go on to higher education. If we can demonstrate to even a handful of these young people what university life is like, and help to raise their aspirations, showing them that university is well within their reach, well be more than pleased.
The programme at Loughborough included hands-on, interactive activities in engineering and sports science. As part of an engineering design challenge, teams of students were asked to build a tower out of everyday materials, with the creations judged on the look, durability and how economical their design was. The sports science session enabled the students to test their own fitness and learn how top sports men and women find their motivation to win. The event concluded with a Silly Mini Olympics, with participants pitting themselves against each other and the Universitys own students!
Facts and figures on looked after young people (from The Way Ahead)
• 50% of young people leaving care at 16+ have no qualifications.
• 11% of looked after children achieved 5 GCSE grade A*-C in 2005 (compared with 54% of all children)
• Poor results at key stage tests at 7, 11 and 14
• Only 1-6% go to university (compared to 40% of school leavers)
• Young people in care are disproportionately likely to be unemployed
• Young people who have been in care are 2.5 times more likely to become teenage parents
• 26% of prisoners have been in care as children (compared with 2% of the total population)