Aspire Programme
Our Aspire programme is designed to provide targeted support to help students achieve their first-choice destinations.
Aspire is a bespoke programme designed to empower students to reach their potential by better understanding themselves and their future options. With input from stakeholders, including universities and employers, students are better equipped to make informed decisions about post-18 destinations. Students are enrolled on the Aspire programme based on their GCSE profile.
Through Exploring Possibilities and Career Planning, students better understand all of the options open to them after Aquinas, identifying careers that may suit their interests and qualities. Aspire students are also given extra guidance on how to get the most out of the college’s After Aquinas event, where there will be a wide range of universities, employers and apprenticeship providers.
Aspire also gives students insights and hands-on experience of Recruitment and Selection Processes, through activities including Assessment Centres and techniques such as the STAR technique to respond to interview questions. These activities are designed to give students a competitive edge, helping them to understand their transferable skills and how to market themselves to universities or employers. Aspire also includes Personal Development activities which draw on cognitive neuroscience, positive psychology, and behaviour change theory designed to raise self-awareness of personal strengths and barriers, helping students to maximise their learning and realise their potential to reach their first choice destination.
The Aspire course has been so beneficial for me as I have learnt many things from it that I wouldn’t have learnt in any other courses. I have acquired some extremely useful tips to help me become more of a resilient and organised person as well as developing an open mindset to ensure I don’t always give up easily to difficult tasks. In addition, I have learnt some helpful ways to prevent procrastination as well as studying in an effective way. We have also started to create a LinkedIn profile to aid with our future careers, etc. Overall, I have really enjoyed this course because I have changed so much(in a good way).
The Aspire programme was useful as it helped me build my confidence and develop career opportunities.
I found it useful as it gives you the knowledge that you must know when applying to university or for jobs, it helped me to be more responsible and to manage myself.
Very useful, as it shows life after aquinas and the different paths and ways to be the best that you can.
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Former Aquinas student, Meraj, returned to college to deliver an inspiring talk about life at Oxford University and the Oxbridge application process. Sharing his own journey from Year 12 mocks to studying Economics and Management at Oxford.
