Million Plus

Inspiring Minds is the flagship outreach programme at Canterbury Christ Church University. It has been cited by an All-Party Parliamentary Group as an excellent example of intervention that has the greatest impact on the aspirations and achievements of young people. Funded by Kent and Medway Collaborative Outreach Programme (KAMCOP), the programme has run for five years and engaged with 493 students.

To specifically address a skills and gender gap in STEM and encourage more young women to apply to study STEM subjects at university KAMCOP, in collaboration with the University’s School of Teacher Education, developed a curriculum of outreach work centred around informal science learning. The projects were designed to raise aspirations around STEM at HE and STEM careers, specifically focusing on encouraging greater female participation in these types of activity. The project includes a six-session programme targeted towards year 10 girls, focusing on building confidence and awareness of STEM in a multidisciplinary context, as well as residential summer schools which helped students understand HE more generally.