PARTICIPATION | Donor Report

TRINITY ACCESS PROGRAMMES

Tackling disadvantage, harnessing potential

Trinity’s commitment to a further significant increase in the participation of students from non-traditional backgrounds is strongly articulated in the College’s new Strategic Plan. The Trinity Access Programmes (TAP) are a central part of this strategy. TAP is Trinity’s flagship initiative for

increasing access to education, playing a pivotal role in creating a more diverse and inclusive College campus. In the last year, two innovative

programmes got underway – The Inner City Access Programme (ICAP) and the Maths and Science Scholars Programme. ICAP’s mission is to contribute to increasing the rates of educational participation in Dublin’s inner city and involves the development of strategic alliances between education and business partners. The aim of the Maths and Science Scholars Programme is to impact on the uptake of maths and science courses at third level by students from disadvantaged backgrounds through a sustained series of educational interventions with students and their parents. The involvement of TAP’s business

partners and private supporters continues to make it possible for TAP to make an impact as an innovative force in education.

www.tcd.ie/Trinity_Access

TAPAS IN TRINITY

Trinity Access Programmes Alumni Strategy

Since 2002, 244 Trinity Access Programmes (TAP) students have graduated and in the last few years TAP has been focussing on answering the question ‘what happened next?’ for these students. A research project which began in 2007 has provided interesting answers and is helping TAP be more effective in preparing individuals from under-represented groups for education and work in a fast changing world.

Trinity alumni contributions have

enabled hundreds of students to pursue their educational goals and have facilitated the growth of innovative new initiatives and programmes in TAP. Celebrating its 16th birthday in 2009, TAP organized a special event TAPAS – Trinity Access Programmes Alumni Strategy – to thank Trinity alumni for their special role in the development of TAP and to present the findings of its research with TAP alumni. The research is informing TAP’s strategy for its next phase and is translating into exciting new programme developments.

Pictured (l-r): Conor O’Kelly, Director of NCB; Senator David Norris; Kevin O’Farrell, TAP alumnus

BRIDGE2COLLEGE

Pioneering educational innovation

The Bridge2College (B2C) Programme – a partnership between Trinity College and Suas Educational Development – presents an exemplar in practice for Irish education and a flagship for technology mediated learning. The objectives of the B2C are to improve the perspective and attitudes towards personal learning, education and third level access of young people from areas of social disadvantage and to champion a model of 21st century learning for all schools. The extension of the B2C model into

schools will be the most ambitious group-based, technology-mediated educational intervention deployed in Ireland to date and is set to commence in selected partner schools from September 2010 onwards. The direct impact of the programme will deliver a greatly enhanced educational experience for young people from under-resourced communities.

B2C’s radical approach to team-based,

technology-mediated creative learning is strongly endorsed by a range of business partners and private supporters. In 2009, John Lawlor, B2C’s Director, received an award from Social Entrepreneurs Ireland to support the development of a scaleable model to allow expansion of the programme nationwide.

www.suas.ie/b2c.html

Accenture’s Corporate Citizenship efforts are focused around ‘Skills to Succeed’, which supports individuals to build and develop the skills necessary to participate further in the economy and to facilitate re-entry into the local workforce. Through our sponsorship of the TAP Pre-University course, we have been supporting the efforts of TAP to widen access to third-level education and provide additional support to students. Our involvement with the NIID is an important and recognised part of our commitment to diversity in the workplace.We believe that our support of the NIID along with our wider investments across our local community are achieving outcomes that make a real impact in society.” Carmel Halpin, Corporate Citizenship, Accenture

18 | Trinity Today

Supporting active citizenship Participation