Student ambassadors for the bachelor degree in early childhood education

Main idea

Increasing awareness of the bachelor degree in early childhood education by having students talk about their studies to prospective students at their old secondary schools.

Outline

The bachelor degree in early childhood education is relatively new at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences (AUAS), so many prospective students at secondary schools aren’t aware of its existence or don’t know what it’s about.

Detailed description

Each year, the study programme puts out a call for ambassadors amongst its students to increase awareness amongst prospective students at secondary schools. Occasionally, secondary schools ask for ambassadors themselves.

These ambassadors go to their old secondary school to talk about their studies. They are provided materials (e.g., a presentation) they can use during their trip, but are encouraged to tell their own story.

(Not) part of the curriculum

Students from this programme are required to obtain two certificates during their studies. They can earn these certificates by contributing to the study programme, for example, by coaching younger students or by being an ambassador. So, for some students being an ambassador is part of the curriculum.

Group size

There are many ways in which students can acquire their certificates, so this initiative doesn’t attract a lot of students (less than ten a year).

Timing

This initiative takes part throughout the entire year.

Goals

• Increasing awareness of the bachelor degree in early childhood education amongst prospective students at secondary schools.
• Helping student ambassadors acquire skills outside of the traditional classroom setting.

Students involvement

Students are involved in the delivery of this initiative as ambassadors.

Success criteria

• Student ambassadors acquire skills outside of the traditional classroom setting.
• Students are actively involved in the initiative.
• The way the initiative is organized is very time efficient.
• This initiative has inspired other study programmes at AUAS to organize something similar.

Points of attention

• There aren’t many students enrolling from certain secondary schools. These secondary schools are often the ones where there’s a big proportion of pupils from a migrant background. There’s a lot of potential to be unlocked, but this issue persists because ambassadors are encouraged to visit the school they went to themselves.
• It would be nice if ambassadors could talk about their studies at other places as well (e.g., in their religious community, in their youth organization…)

Would you recommend this to other institutions?

strongly agree

Evaluation

This initiative is evaluated with the student ambassadors, but not with prospective students. This evaluation is done by mail or with a form. The ambassadors are asked about the information they received beforehand, how their trip went, etc.

Results

This initiative is positively evaluated.

Communication

Students find out about this initiative because it’s mentioned:

• in newsletters,
• throughout the course for which they must earn the certificates,
• on AUAS’ online platforms (Canvas and MijnDinar).

Timing

This initiative takes part throughout the entire year.

Resources

• You need a member of staff who puts out the calls for ambassadors and who draws up the certificates for students who took part in this initiative.
• You need information to provide to ambassadors.

Transferability

We think it is easily transferable to other contexts or groups.

Overall, it’s easily transferable. You just need to provide your students with useful information so they can correctly inform the pupils at secondary schools. It might be a bit more difficult in more technical study programmes where students are less used to talking to (groups of) people.

Universal Design

The information is provided in multiple ways. Thus, the initiative is based on the principles of UD in this regard.

When it comes to accessibility and inclusion, some groups remain hard to reach.