KEELE IN THE COMMUNITY
The team behind a widening participation programme led by Keele University are celebrating after winning a prestigious award for their work with a local professional football club .
24 | FOREVER Keele
KEELE IN THE COMMUNITY
Keele-led outreach programme wins community award for work with professional football club
The team behind a widening participation programme led by Keele University are celebrating after winning a prestigious award for their work with a local professional football club .
Keele Higher Horizons , a government-funded programme which aims to widen participation in higher education among under-represented groups , were named Partner of the Year at the recent Port Vale Foundation Awards , following a project they collaborated with the League Two club on earlier this year .
The team , which proudly contains three Keele alumni , worked with Port Vale FC to help broaden the aspirations of academy players who don ’ t go on to play professional football , with Associate Director Ant Sutcliffe giving the young players a talk on the benefits of higher education and football-adjacent degree disciplines they could pursue as an alternative such as physiotherapy , sports and exercise science , and journalism .
Ant also drew on his own experiences of having played for Port Vale ’ s academy in his youth , before pursuing his undergraduate degree at Keele . Working with the academy and education squad , the Higher Horizons team introduced the young people to the benefits of higher education , providing them with university experiences , and answering questions around the application process , student finance , and life as a student , while pursuing a career in football .