We are delighted to announce that Caroline Hallett, our Education, Participation & Achievements Manager, will shortly be taking up a 3-month secondment to the Caretech Foundation. (CareTech Foundation • An independent grant-making corporate foundation) The secondment will help the Foundation to establish its new Care Leavers University Scholarship Programme.
Caroline has been with By the Bridge for three years and heads up the Eagal Team. She is an experienced Project Manager and was previously a Director of Children’s Charity working with Young Carers. This, combined with her experience here with By the Bridge, made her an ideal candidate for a project role which saw applications from across the Caretech Group.
Caroline is really looking forward to the opportunity to make a difference to care-experienced young adults’ participation in university. She said:
“As we are all aware, most care-experienced adults will experience personal, educational and financial challenges in accessing quality higher education. A recent Department for Education report showed that access to higher education is much lower for young people who have been in care; in 2017-18, only 12 per cent of pupils who were looked after continuously for 12 months or more entered higher education compared with 42 per cent of all other pupils. Once at University, those with care experience are nearly twice as withdraw from their degree than their peers.
I am delighted to be able to play a small part to ensure the Caretech Foundation Scholarship Programme improves the university participation opportunities for young people who have been in care."
Please join us in wishing her well for the time of her secondment. We look forward to seeing her back in November and learning more about the Project’s success.
