A student from a Military Service background can face many additional barriers to their education that are not present in the lives of Non-Military Service families. As such it is important that those from Military Service backgrounds are able to access additional support that caters to their individual needs to best facilitate their progression through education. At York St. John University, we take part in multiple projects and events to help widening access to Higher Education by giving information that allows students to make informed decisions regarding their post-16 education and working life.
Definition:
A ‘Service Child’ (SCIP) is any child or young person who has one or both parents or carers currently serving in the regular armed forces, or who has ever served in the armed forces during that child or young persons lifetime. This also includes parents or carers who are a full-time member of the reserve service.
barriers and Support
Due to the nature of military careers, those from Military Service Families may encounter different barriers to education than other students from civilian households. Key areas are around Mobility, Family Separation, and Transitioning to Civilian Life. Mobility refers to how redeployment of a family member can lead to a full family relocating, meaning a young person may have to move schools, or even country, to continue their education. This can lead to disruption to the curriculum and areas of teaching may be missed, or reduced opportunities for engagement in extra-curricular activities as students may leave mid-way through a term and miss the sign-up times. Family Separation, meaning at least one family member serving away from home, can be a significant source of family stress, in particular how it affects a family structure. It may also mean a student moving away to University has less familiar support to rely upon to support the move. Although having one parent or carer isn’t unique to Service Children, it is a common occurrence and therefore relevant. Transitioning to civilian life is about the change a family goes through when the active service member of the family leaves the military. This is something that can again cause additional stresses to the family and have the potential to cause relocation, all additional stressors to the young person.
York St John University is a part of the Service Children’s Progression (SCiP) Alliance, the goal of which is to support education practitioners to champion the progression of the children of military personnel, so that they can make informed and confident transitions through further and higher education into thriving adult lives and careers.
As part of this, every year we host a large-scale onsite event for Pre-16 Service Children, from our local area, at our campus in York to provide an insight into University life. The day is filled with Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) sessions, academic workshop tasters and classes led by current university students, all with aim to inform young people about the benefits of Higher Education, how it is an attainable goal, and how they go about achieving that goal if they would like too. We also highlight the importance of other career routes such as apprenticeships, making sure that students better understand all pathways to help them make an informed decision about their future.
We are also proud supporters of the North Yorkshire County Council’s “Festival of Friends” initiative which seeks to support Armed Forces Champions in local schools as they complete a small school improvement project that facilitates the growth of young people from service families and promotes access to Further Education and Higher Education.
If you’d like to talk to us about your application or about university please contact us on wp@yorksj.ac.uk