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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Lower 6th students GCSE Japanese Students at Aquinas celebrated Tanabata, known as the Star Festival, on their last day of term. The celebration is based on an ancient tale of two young people who are very much in love but only allowed to meet each year on the 7th July and only if the skies […]
Aquinas college students and staff are currently undertaking an epic pilgrimage adventure The purpose of the trip is to give our students an opportunity to experience a flavour of two different types of Catholic pilgrimage (Lourdes and the Camino de Santiago) in a way that caters both for Catholics and those who are curious.
Students from Aquinas College recently took part in an inspiring collaboration with the University of Salford as part of the Creative Mentoring Programme — a project designed to nurture creative skills, encourage critical thinking, and offer insight into careers in the creative industries.
Music Technology students took part in a hands-on workshop at Spirit Studios where they learned essential studio skills, including how to tune, mic up, overdub, and record a full drum kit. They explored both classic 1960s techniques and modern recording methods, gaining valuable insight into the evolution of studio practices over time.
