Programme boosting Telford sixth form students' futures shortlisted for national award

Posted 23 June 2025

A programme for Telford sixth form students - funded by and hosted at Harper Adams University - has been nominated for a national award.

The programme is part of Future Leaders UK, a nationally recognised social mobility organisation dedicated to supporting ambitious 16 to 18-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Each programme provides leadership training, mentorship, and access to work experience to help equip the young people who participate with the skills and confidence needed to excel in their futures.

It is focused on providing opportunities for students from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and those who might not have access to opportunities in their daily lives.

In the Telford programme, the first to be sponsored directly by a university and targeting Year 12 students outside of a metropolitan area, business leaders and opinion formers from across the region have shared their wisdom with participants. Experts in engineering, digital technology, project leadership, public affairs and more have all taken part over the three-month course of the programme.

The University has now been nominated for a national Leadership in Widening Participation Future Leaders award for its work on the Telford programme.

The award recognises an organisation that has taken great strides to advance social mobility in non-metropolitan areas – with staff and students set to find out if they are winners at a ceremony in London’s BT Tower on June 25.

Each student in the programme, which ran from April until the second week of June, took part in weekly hybrid workshops designed to build confidence, enhance skills, and expand their professional networks.

The programme also emphasised social awareness, equipping students to challenge discrimination and inequality, and the cohort from Harper Adams University, Telford are among 5,000 young people across the UK who have now completed the programme.

They will now join hundreds of other students from across the UK on the fully-booked Harper Adams Experience at the end of June, before a final event hosted by Telford MP Shaun Davies. which will see them invited to the Houses of Parliament in London.

Harper Adams University Vice-Chancellor Professor Ken Sloan said: “It is great to see the work of the Future Leaders programme in Telford recognised nationally.

“The nomination is thanks to all those who have worked to make the programme a success – whether that is employees of Harper Adams University, the team from Future Leaders regionally or the many speakers from partners and businesses across the region.

“Most of all, though, this award recognises the work of the students on our Future Leaders programme – and the impact they have made.”