LJMU fashion and broadcast staff raise career aspirations of local schoolchildren

Student support staff from the Faculty of Arts, Professional and Social Studies joined pupils from a Liverpool primary school to raise aspirations around their future career paths.

Cathy Reilly, fashion design and manufacture technologist with extensive experience in education and industry, and Bradley Hessey, an experienced broadcast technologist who works to connect education to broadcast industries across the Liverpool City Region, joined schoolchildren from St Leo’s School in Whiston during their Ambition Week.

In a week aimed at developing the children’s aspirations and goals for the future, Cathy and Bradley were able to share their own personal insights of working in higher education. They also demonstrated a variety of Arts based skills that could lead to potential careers for the children that they may have never considered before.

Year 6 pupil Sean said: “There were jobs I didn’t even know existed. They were amazing.”

Year 4 pupil Hallie said: “I loved exploring new jobs and doing fun things.”

The faculty works closely with LJMU Outreach teams and are well connected with primary schools across the Liverpool City Region, building links with the communities that the university serves to ensure that anyone who wants to progress to higher education is able to access it, regardless of background or social status.

Teachers and career advisers are able to book sessions for their students through the Outreach team.

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Local school children have visited University College London (UCL) as part of an LJMU widening access programme. Access All Areas is an initiative from LJMU’s Outreach team which arranged the first university exchange for year 11 pupils. Through the programme, LJMU works with local schools, Mosslands and West Derby to give year 9-11 pupils experience of higher education. Each year, pupils are welcomed on to campus to gain insight into a variety of programmes, delivered by academics from subject areas including Health, Engineering, Policing and Education. The programme then culminates in a university exchange to UCL. As part of the boys’ visit to UCL they toured the historic campus followed by a hands-on anthropology lecture, giving an insight into university level study. The pupils were introduced to a founding figure from UCL’s past, the skeleton of Jeremy Benham, (1748 – 1832) which is on public display in his original clothing. Catherine Shillito, from LJMU’s Outreach team, who leads on the programme said: “To see the boys, with whom we have worked regularly since Year 9, conclude the programme in another globally renowned university made for a memorable day. “A key aim of the programme is for all pupils to realise their own potential and believe, as asserted by both LJMU and UCL, that university is for the many, not the few. “Access All Areas equips young people with the skills to make an informed choice about university options and this reciprocal exchange model will see pupils engaged in widening access programmes with other UK universities visit LJMU in the future. “We look forward to continuing to work with programme participants post sixteen and throughout their sixth form education.”

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