Hello Future Aims and Objectives

Hello Future Aims to:  Reduce the gap in higher education participation between the most and least represented groups.  Support Cumbrian young people to make well-informed decisions about their future education.  Support effective and impactful local collaboration between higher education providers working together with schools, colleges, employers and other partners from across Cumbria and Lancashire.  Contribute to a stronger evidence base around ‘what works’ in higher education outreach and strengthen evaluation practice in the sector.

Targeted Outreach (Hello Future) Objectives

1. To meet the aims we will provide impartial, sustained and progressive higher education outreach that is tailored to the needs of young people in Cumbria target areas.

2. To increase the number of opportunities for target learners, teachers/advisors, parents/carers and community groups to access and understand the value of higher level qualifications and higher education.

3. To engage over 20% of the total target Cumbrian young people (each academic year) in the Hello Future programme intervention activities.

4. To increase the number of learners engaged in three or more intervention activities as outlined in the progression framework from Phase 1 to Phase 2.

5. To embed Hello Future intervention activities into school and college higher education access provision beyond 2021.

Outreach Hub Objectives 1. To map existing H.E. outreach opportunities in Cumbria to identify gaps in provision.

2. To collaborate with partners and stakeholders to support local needs (skill gaps and opportunities) and localised approaches to HE outreach.

3. To develop a mechanism through which school/college teachers and advisors (and therefore learners) have improved access to the range of existing outreach activities available to them in Cumbria and Lancashire.

4. To actively signpost school/college teachers and advisors to the range of existing outreach activities available to them in Cumbria and Lancashire.

5. To support schools and colleges to meet Impact Measure 7 (Encounters with Further and Higher Education) of the Cumbria Careers Hub and Careers Strategy.

These are new and specific to Phase 2. Evaluation Objectives

These objectives apply to both the Targeted Outreach and the Outreach Hub. 1. To engage with evaluation at both a local level and nationally. To provide timely, accurate and accessible findings that contribute to a stronger (local and national) evidence base on ‘what works’ and is value for money in H.E. outreach.

2. To seek the opinions of learners and their influencers (parents/carers, teachers/advisors, community groups) consistently across Hello Future intervention activities to strengthen local evaluation practice in widening participation and understand impact.

3. To increase partnership knowledge and understanding of conducting purposeful data collection and analysis and how to implement within practices.

4. To promote the findings and impact of the Targeted Outreach and Outreach Hub across the partnership through a dissemination of evidence plan.