Working on my Action Research project, “In-Reach Supports Out-Reach”, has been both an Insights into FE and HE education a learning curve but also fun and engaging!
My intervention aimed to bridge the gap between FE and HE for vocational-route Fashion students, by aligning FE project work with HE expectations and providing ongoing in-course support. Initially, I believed that pre-BA workshops and tutorials alone could help students feel prepared and confident.
The responses from tutors and students highlighted the complexity of the transition. Tutors emphasised that students often struggle with independence, self-directed learning, and financial pressures—many are choosing to study closer to home or explore apprenticeships to avoid debt. Students reflected on imposter syndrome, feeling “behind” their peers, and subtle cultural and class divides, including unspoken expectations around appearance in critiques. These insights made me realise that the transition isn’t just about technical skills—it’s also about confidence, belonging, and navigating the HE environment.
I’ve realised that my intervention is on the right track but needs to be more holistic: blending practical project guidance with emotional support, mentoring, and strategies for managing both academic and personal challenges. For example, smaller workshops, one-to-one mentoring, and explicit guidance on independent research and presentation skills could better address these barriers. The feedback about dress codes and unconscious bias also highlights the importance of inclusive practices alongside technical preparation.
Overall, the findings have strengthened my belief in the intervention while refining its scope. It’s no longer just a bridge for technical skills—it’s a scaffold for confidence, belonging, resilience, and practical awareness. Moving forward, the intervention will be more responsive, inclusive, and reflective of the lived experiences of vocational-route students. It needs the involvement of the entire team – both in the Fashion program at CSM and the broader teams in the FE colleges. In the end I managed to reach out to more tutors than I had hoped, which was great, I got a real feel for how the teachers in FE felt and what they really needed from CSM. I am continued to be amazed at the amount of passion and hard work the FE tutors put into their every day, and the support and love they have for their students.
As a result of this work, it highlighted something I was already aware of, that more work is needed in Secondary Schools, younger ages to help support with the even playing field for retention and achievement at HE level. It is getting harder and harder for secondary and primary art teachers to teach creatively, with many of their classrooms now being in white cube computer rooms with no natural light, most of the lovely purpose built art studios have gone, the introduction of STEM has meant less delivery of art subjects, so by the time the students get to FE colleges ( if they are lucky enough to be able to choose art and design as career, they have very little knowledge of independent thinking. All of this was highlighted in the questionaries I sent out to FE tutors.
On the bright side – my work in Knowledge Exchange can bring in more projects which include schools or Art CICs.