Linking London introduces Level 2 support as part of our collaborative offer

Our Director Andrew Jones earlier on in the year wrote a blog article looking at the importance of supporting level 2 students, discussing low progression rates and argues that we now need to focus on Level 2 students, who in the past have been overlooked, and look at ways we can increase overall progression and ultimately help contribute to closing the gap on the skills shortage in England. You can read the full article here: https://linkinglondon.wordpress.com/2019/03/04/level-2-college-learners-overlooked-and-ignored/

 As a result during the last academic year we held a pilot for a Level 2 BTEC support offer and we were pleased that three of our university partners (Kingston University London, Birkbeck, University of London and University of the Arts London) got involved and provided support to NewVic College and  Sir George Monoux College. After an initial meeting with all staff involved in the pilot it was decided the supported needed should be around subject specific support, study skills, independent learning, resilience and confidence building. Our university partners responded to the request and designed programmes of activities to meet these needs.

 Due to the positive feedback we received from both college and university partners involved we are now keen to expand this support and open the offer up to all our colleges and plan to have sessions running from the spring term 2020. After an initial session from University of the Arts London, Sir George Monoux said  ‘A big thanks to Ian Thompson who manages the #UAL Outreach Programme. Ian popped into the college today to talk to our Level 2 Media students about the skills they’ll need to start developing now in order to become successful practitioners in the future. Ian introduced UAL’s ‘creative Attributes’ framework and encouraged our learners to discuss how they can ‘make things happen,’ ‘showcase abilities’ and ‘navigate change’ to ensure that they are adequately prepared for Level 3 progression and beyond. Thanks again Ian’, we’re really looking forward to working with you and staff from UAL Outreach Team again very soon’.

 As well as expanding our Level 2 BTEC support offer we are now looking to develop and pilot a Pre-Access support offer. We will be delivering the small scale pilot offer during the spring term 2020 with the anticipation to expand it further in the future.

 To find out more, or if you are interested in getting involved in either the Level 2 BTEC or pre Access Support, please email Emily Harber on e.harber@linkinglondon.ac.uk