The Aspiring Professionals Programme (APP) is an initiative designed to help talented students from less affluent backgrounds gain a top-class education in fields that are typically costly or highly competitive to enter. Highly motivated students (usually in Year 12) whose families lack significant financial resources can get the support they need to secure a sought-after degree from a prestigious institution and pursue their desired career without constant money worries. You can find out more in the article on liverpool1.one.
Aspiring Professionals Programme: What You Need to Know
The programme offers personalised skill-building sessions, career workshops, university application support, and work experience placements with leading employers in Liverpool and other major UK cities. Participants are also matched with mentors from their chosen career sectors, who provide invaluable guidance and networking opportunities.
Here are some of the key features:
- Mentors can offer professional advice and guidance via email.
- Students receive support with their university applications, particularly for highly competitive courses.
- A significant benefit is the opportunity for work experience and internships with top employers, both in and outside of Liverpool.
- Crucially, participants gain access to a supportive community of like-minded peers.
The APP is part of a broader effort to boost social mobility by breaking down barriers linked to a person’s background. It’s all about helping bright, yet disadvantaged, young people gain the necessary skills and confidence to succeed in life.
In addition, the University of Liverpool runs a related professional programme for recent graduates, which focuses on career development through workshops, sector-specific knowledge, networking, and digital resources, helping graduates fast-track their careers in the region.
Eligibility Criteria for the APP
To be accepted onto the programme, students typically need to demonstrate high academic potential – for example, with predicted grades of ABB at A-Level. A-Levels are the UK’s school-leaving exams, and ABB means an A grade in one subject and B grades in two others. Naturally, applicants must also provide evidence that they come from a low-income or economically disadvantaged area.
Programmes of this nature in the UK pay close attention to the personal circumstances in which a young person lives and studies. Therefore, alongside academic performance, they also take into account so-called social barriers. These include factors such as:
- Being the first in the immediate family to attend university;
- A household income not exceeding £45,000 (and often being significantly lower);
- Parents or guardians being in low-paid, unskilled employment, or unemployed;
- The young person being in care or having been brought up by a foster family;
- Eligibility for free school meals, which is a strong indicator of financial difficulty.
A candidate only needs to meet one of these criteria. Put simply, if a young person is living in circumstances where they lack support, contacts, information, or resources, the programme gives them a chance to level the playing field and develop themselves alongside their more privileged peers.
Importantly, participation in the APP doesn’t depend on the school a teenager attends – the main thing is that it is not a private (fee-paying) school. Location is also a factor: some students join the programme online, while those who live in or near Liverpool take part in face-to-face activities.
Even if a student doesn’t quite meet the formal grade requirements or has gaps in their education, the organisers don’t automatically turn them away. For these cases, there is the APP Reach programme – a less intensive but still valuable support platform that includes online mentoring, study resources, and careers guidance. And if academia doesn’t quite work out, they can always follow in the footsteps of Craig Charles and reach for the stars in film!