Students’ SEND employability campaign to be showcased at Mayoral Assembly

A campaign to get more support for SEND learners once they leave college has been launched by Hackney students – and they are now taking their mission to the Mayoral Assembly.

After launching the campaign at the first ever Citizens Assembly at New City College, the students then took their fight to the Student Union Conference in March and will take to the stage again at the Mayoral Assembly on Thursday 28 April.

They are urging the authorities to provide more support for SEND learners and students with EHCPs so that they can access further training, employment and career opportunities after they finish their college courses.

The Students Union, along with Hackney campus Enrichment Coordinator Victor Ademosu, has worked hard over the last few months to launch the campaign, getting Citizens UK, the SEND learners themselves, parents, community professionals, schools and agencies involved.

Victor said: “We realised there was a big problem for SEND learners once they had finished college because they were left with no support. These newly-skilled students with relevant qualifications and confidence from their time at NCC found that on the outside world they were excluded from the jobs market and opportunities for training as there was no support available to them.

“So we decided to launch a campaign which aims to spearhead an advocacy programme that can train, support, and elevate the voices of the learners, whose future opportunities are negatively impacted when they leave education.

“At the Citizens Assembly we launched our campaign along with lots of other community groups and a vote was held to find the best one. We were delighted when NCC were announced as the winners after receiving the highest number of votes!”

The Student Union officers – Tommy Usher, Alice Chaney, James Patterson, Chinwendu Nwachukwu, Shohid Ahmed and Leon Cristovao – will give an overview of the SEND campaign to the Mayoral Assembly in the hope that improvements will be made.

Find out more information about SEND and FAQs at New City College.