Successful first Bedford College programme completed

Blues Foundation are delighted to reveal that the first six-week enrichment programme with Bedford College has been completed with all students developing core life skills through vocational education.

Started in April, this enrichment programme – designed specifically by Blues Foundation to target personal development – has extended the charity’s reach with local educational institutions by using the power of sport and education to focus on physical and mental health and well-being.

Delivered to the Bedford College Group as part of their ‘Advance to FE course’, sessions have taken place at both their Bedford and Kettering campuses and at Goldington Road, the home of Bedford’s premier sporting club, Bedford Blues.

The ‘Advance to FE’ course provides opportunities for 16–19-year-olds to develop transferable skills to enable learning in Further Education, Higher Education, or apprenticeships.

Bedford College are the leading advocate for learning within the local community through creating strong and productive links with external partners, and Blues Foundation were proud to host this initiative using our own #SportForChange belief.

Both organisations have the ambition to become a leading and innovative provider of work-based and community-based learning, and while this has been the first partnership, the success of the course highlights there is the potential for further growth to extend all available offerings.

During this six-week course, sessions were delivered through a variety of classroom workshops and outside vocational activities, targeted to develop employability and leadership skills, as well as a key focus on well-being.

At the end of the course, all students were asked to fill in a self-evaluation form.

Blues Foundation are proud to report that every single student scored their physical and mental well-being higher than at the start of the programme, citing development in areas such as communication, teamwork, leadership and employability.

The delivery structure of this six-week project has been similar to Blues Foundation’s most recently launched activation, Tackle LIFE; which uses the values of rugby to promote discipline, resilience and teamwork. Read all about the opening week of this project and how to get involved here.

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