Hopwood Hall College

Hopwood Hall College delivers a multitude of enrichment activities such as the Duke of Edinburgh Award, guest speakers, trips, CSCS cards in construction, sports offer, five ways to wellbeing activities and learner voice opportunities.

Enrichment is embedded into tutorials and each tutor has weekly themes of different enrichment activities taking place. Hopwood Hall College uses enrichment to get buy-in from learners who may be feeling disengaged or are the furthest away from education, particularly at Level 1 and 2. It develops their confidence, resilience, and personal skills helping them to succeed in the workplace as well as having a positive impact on attendance.

The pandemic has had an impact on student's attitudes and behaviours and the college has had to change its approach to get students to engage with enrichment, doing more work to get students to take part and see the benefits or engagement.

The main challenge faced by colleges wanting to deliver engaging enrichment activities is funding. Most enrichment activities are free for students but will come at cost both in terms of money and staff time. Although having a dedicated person or team to coordinate enrichment is a great investment from a college, it ensures enrichment remains a focus for the college and is responsive to what students want and need, building good relationships with students, tutors and external agencies.

Colleges are innovative and resourceful and want to provide a wide range of different activities dedicated to meeting the needs of their students. Hopwood Hall College is looking at how to include a driving school as part of their enrichment and expanding on some of their current work to benefit more students like adults.