If we’re going to solve problems and meet challenges, we believe we need to open up. We need to give everyone the chance to succeed. Social mobility drives societies forward through increased economic opportunity and community transformation. Our openness is designed to increase prosperity and progress for individuals, Hereford, the region and beyond.
Opening up different approaches
Our MEng degree is based on short project “sprints” designed to solve real business and community challenges in an open and safe environment. It encourages learners to take calculated risks and it gives essential context to learning. Focusing on practical application pushes our students, allowing them to fail, learn, and move on without the anxiety of ‘make or break’ exams. And with attentive support from their educators and regular feedback and assessment, we can ensure a better and more sustainable level of progress.
Opening up lifelong learning
Our CPD programmes deliver the specialist skills needed for business success in a competitive market. And it will be a place to which our graduates can return to keep their skills vital and focused. By providing this additional education element, we’re also tackling the skills shortages in the region, with courses on defence, security, manufacturing, A.I., and business start-up. And as demand changes, so will we, responding with new courses to keep skills relevant.
Opening up recruitment possibilities
Our MEng is open to people who don’t have A level Maths and Physics. It’s not just one particular academic background that makes an engineer, but individuality coupled with passion, grit, determination, creativity and curiosity. Just because these attributes are harder to quantify, doesn't mean we shouldn't invest the time to identify those with the potential to become an NMITE engineer. We know all these attributes are essential for success. Therefore, these are the critical qualifications we’re looking for.
Opening up opportunity
Social mobility lifts everyone in society, and it is core to our beliefs. It’s not to fill arbitrary quotas but to ensure equality of access and success and, even more importantly, diversity of thinking. We’re dedicated to achieving a 50/50 gender balance on our MEng course. By better reflecting society, we will be more attractive to BAME communities, people with disabilities and those from different academic and life backgrounds, and those who simply learn differently. We’ll continue to strengthen our ties with local schools and further education colleges, enabling their learners to experience our transformative education experience.
We plan to offer a comprehensive scholarship programme for people who can’t afford to continue their learning. Along with our recruitment model, our scholarships will help us break down barriers for groups who would never consider engineering. For businesses, our scholarships will be an opportunity to directly invest in their future workforce and be recognised as key partners in the NMITE success story. Our lifelong goal – the ability to admit and support any applicant regardless of financial need.
What we need
Right now, we need your support to encourage more people into engineering, meeting them where they live, and helping them to reflect how engineering can help change their lives. Specifically, we need:
Scholarships
We need £1.4M per year by 2024 to deliver our innovative Community of Scholarships strategy, designed to accelerate social mobility. Our scholarship programme will get more people into better and more diverse jobs, providing more opportunities and setting young lives on exciting and transformative journeys.
Outreach programme
We need £250,000 per year to fund our outreach programme to provide support opportunities and inspiration to young people.