Our History
FOCUS West (Focus on College and University Study – West of Scotland) is a part of the National Schools’ Programme in Scotland. We work to support young people into university/higher education.
Our work is on behalf of all universities and is therefore not connected to any one institution and we offer support regardless of the pupil’s subject area or career path of choice. This allows us to be impartial, inclusive and to offer balanced and helpful advice and guidance to the pupils we support.
Activities are concentrated on the Senior Phase of the Curriculum for Excellence (S4-S6). Alongside our work in schools, our website FOCUS Point (www.focuspoint.org.uk) gives our pupils in-depth, online university-specific information, advice and guidance as well as giving pupils help with applications.
Funded by the Scottish Funding Council, FOCUS West began in an earlier version in 2000 as the GOALS Project and was reformed in 2009 after changes at a national level. The FOCUS West team works in four of the universities/higher education institutions in the west of Scotland, i.e. the University of Glasgow (Top-Up Programme – for S5/6 pupils), the University of Strathclyde (Campus Experience Programme – for S4 pupils), the University of the West of Scotland (Routes for All Programme – for S5/6 pupils), and the Glasgow School of Art (Portfolio Development Programme). We signpost also to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (Widening Access to the Creative Industries) for applicants to courses in Music, Acting, Dance and Technical Production Arts.
The FOCUS West team delivers our in-school and on-campus programme along with trained student tutors and mentors from universities in the west of Scotland, all of whom have personal and direct experience of the benefits of attending university. Many of the trained student tutors and mentors have themselves attended the schools that we are active in and have moved on to successful study in university. They are therefore powerful role models of what pupils can achieve.
