News Archive

Last Friday, the Honourable Julie Bishop met Aspire staff and Student Ambassadors to congratulate the team on being awarded a Department of Education and Training, National Priorities Pool grant. The grant, worth $184,073, will fund an intensive one year project that aims to improve numeracy skills and career outcomes for low socio-economic status students.

Aspire UWA Manager, Louise Pollard, says the ‘Adding to the pipeline’ project is intended to inspire low socio-economic status students to study STEM subjects, particularly mathematics.

“There’s a concern that many high school students are not choosing to study higher level mathematics in school and are missing out on exciting study and career possibilities. There are also cases where it is likely that students will not meet minimum numeracy requirements, preventing some students from graduating high school.

“This is a worrying prospect that we aim to address through this project, with support from colleagues across the University, our Student Ambassadors and partner school representatives. We will design and trial innovative activities for early secondary school students that will link numeracy skills development to university study and exciting career options,” Ms Pollard says.

The project will also support secondary school teachers through professional development and the distribution of classroom resources.

“Students and teachers in our partner schools across Western Australia will be inspired by our Student Ambassadors, who will facilitate the workshops; highlighting the lifelong benefits of studying mathematics along with the importance and relevance of strong numeracy skills,” Ms Pollard says.