Impartial Information , Advice and Guidance - Next Steps South West
Next Steps South West ( NSSW ) and partner student ambassadors delivered impartial , interactive , age-specific Information , Advice and Guidance ( IAG ) to 6,500 students in 2019 / 20 . Tailored , year-group specific workshops provide sustained , progressive outreach through successive years , targeted at addressing a lack of knowledge of higher education and a lack of transferable skills . Differentiated Skills Mapping sessions delivered to Year 10 , 12 and 13 groups resulted in students being able to identify their transferable skills , with 95 % being able to give two or more examples . Students reported an average 40 % increase in intention to progress into HE .
HeppSY Cohort Evaluation : Contact Hours and Expectations of Applying to HE Aged 18 or 19
As highlighted by Anders and Micklewright ( 2015 ), expectation of HE progression at age 16 is a strong predictor of actual progression . Research was undertaken by HeppsY to determine whether higher levels of engagement with the HeppSY programme between Year 10 and 11 ( using contact hours as an indicator ) maintained or increased student expectation of progression to HE at age 18 or 19 .
For students in Year 10 during the first wave of the CFE annual survey in 2017 , the study found a moderate , positive association between contact hours and Wave 2 expectations of applying to HE , after controlling for Wave 1 responses ( amongst other predictors ). This association was statistically significant when school and motivation were included as further predictors .
This suggests that the more a Year 10 student interacts with the HeppSY programme , the greater the odds are that they will maintain or increase their expectations of progression to HE study at age 18 or 19 – a significant focus of the programme as whole .
Further , the exploratory analysis undertaken sought to identify a ‘ saturation point ’ at which further interaction with the programme offered little or no benefit against the outcome of interest . The exploratory model highlighted that students with 3-6 contact hours were more likely to have higher expectations of applying to HE than students with fewer than three hours , and contact hours greater than six did not increase the likelihood any further .
Full report published October 2020 . Authors : Daniel Fletcher and Greg Brown
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