With university application deadlines not too far away, students are preparing and finalising their personal statements ready for UCAS. 

Each year second year students who have identified their interest in progressing to university, attend Applications Day. All students are completely off timetable and focus solely on their university applications. 

Students are split in to groups to ensure they gain a high quality of support throughout the day. Representatives from Manchester Metropolitan University and Sheffield Hallam University delivered sessions throughout the day. Universities spoke to students about writing their personal statements, giving key information about what to include, how to stand out and how to tailor your individual personal statement.

There are a huge number of universities across the UK with thousands of courses to choose from. Students also explored how to research a university. They looked at how to find the best university for their chosen course and also how to find the university that is right for them. 

Following these information talks, students split in to groups let by tutors and teaching staff. In these sessions, students began their UCAS applications if they had not done so already. Staff were on hand to help students if they had any issues filling out sections of the forms. They were also able to start their personal statement or work on improving what they had written already based on the advice they received earlier in the day. 

Applications Day is the perfect opportunity for students to meet others who share similar interests or are facing similar issues when writing their personal statements. It also allows students to get support from their tutors and teachers as they take their personal statement writing much more seriously.

For the students who want to progress on to an apprenticeship or employment after college and have chosen an employability pathway over a UCAS group, they will attend the Employability Day on Thursday 10th October. This day is dedicated to helping students find and apply for apprenticeships, how best to stand out in an interview and meet future employers.