In the spirit of Adult Learners' Week 2020, we'd like to showcase some of our students who have returned to study.

• Jules Sparkle, student on the BA in Social Studies [2+2 degree pathway], applied for the degree after she was unsuccessful in a job application for not having a degree. Jules is now nearing the end of her time as a student at CLL and will be going onto further study at the University of East London. Read Jules' story here: https://warwick.ac.uk/study/cll/yourwarwick/studentstories/jules/
• Alana Wileman, student on the Foundation degree in Early Childhood, was always passionate about working with young children. Alana gave up her job in retail to work as a teaching assistant at her sons' school and then attended an open evening to find out more about the Early Childhood course and here she is now two years into the course. Read Alana's story here: https://warwick.ac.uk/study/cll/yourwarwick/studentstories/alana/
• Karen Burns, Full-time Social Studies student who had always thought of returning to study but found a reason to put it off. This all changed when an advert for our Gateway to HE course popped up on her Facebook. Now not only has she completed Gateway, she is coming to the end of her second year. Read Karen's story here: https://warwick.ac.uk/study/cll/yourwarwick/studentstories/karen/
• Clare Holland, student on the Career Development and Coaching Studies course, rekindled a desire to return to higher education when her teenage children were applying to university. It presented an opportunity for her to consolidate her personal development and guidance experience with a specific vocational qualification. Read Clare's story here: https://warwick.ac.uk/study/cll/yourwarwick/studentstories/clareh/
• Jim McGeoghegan, Teaching Fellow at CLL, began his CLL journey years ago when he studied the BA in Social Studies [ 2+2 degree pathway]. Now not only is he teaching on the Social Work programme here at CLL but his son is also a student on our Gateway to He course. Read about Jim's journey here: https://warwick.ac.uk/study/cll/yourwarwick/studentstories/jim/

The Gatsby Foundation and the JP Morgan Chase Foundation are supporting the Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick to undertake research to understand how parents and carers can be better supported by schools and colleges to feel more informed and confident with the advice they give to their children. Dr John Gough from our Careers team has been involved in the research project on 'The role of parents in providing careers guidance and how they can be better supported.'

You can read the report findings along with the recording of a live webinar explaining more about the project here.

Staff in CLL celebrated International Women's Day by sharing which woman inspires each of them. Staff from various teams including marketing and admissions along with teaching staff got involved.

You can see the photos and a short description explaining each person was chosen as an inspiration on our Instagram account.

Staff in our Career Studies and Coaching course team have secured internal University of Warwick funding to explore the experience of their students from BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) backgrounds.

Gill Frigerio, Associate professor and project lead explains: Recent data from across UK HE has shown that the gap between rates of attainment of a good degree (a 2.1 or a first) is running at about 13% lower for BAME graduates compared with their white counterparts. There is a lot of work across the sector on this and it is quite a big focus at Warwick too. A first stage to understanding the gap is to hear from BAME students about their experiences rather than imposing potential solutions from above.

Clare's paper was recently accepted for publication by The Early Childhood Studies Degree Network (ECSDN). Clare was nevous to submit the paper but said she received a lot of support from Warwick. You can read our interview with her here.

Huge congratulations to Clare from all of the team at Centre for Lifelong Learning!