There are a few different ways to get involved in #IAmFirstGen whether you are a large business, small social enterprise or an individual.

First Gen Employers: Commit to targeted outreach and graduate recruitment activities to further the opportunities for First Gen learners, with support from UWE Bristol and the Future Quest Outreach Hub.

First Gen Ambassadors: Commit to sharing personal stories of your journey to and through higher education and onto your current employment, and support First Gen learners to build their own stories.

What do we need from you?

We are asking professionals that were the first in their family to attend university to write a Letter To Previous Self – a short letter talking about their experiences.

• First Gen Employers:  You can show your support by forwarding the downloadable email template and helping us to reach people that may be able to contribute a letter. We would like you to disseminate this to your colleagues and networks asking them to send us their contributions.
• First Gen Ambassadors:  If you are a first generation graduate, we would love to hear from you about your experiences. Please see the downloadable guidance and examples of ‘Letter To Previous Self’ on how to write a letter telling young people about your story.

We know that organisations are increasingly recognising the value of diversity and want to support the social mobility agenda. More than 450 organisations, including UWE Bristol, have signed the Social Mobility Pledge, committing to closing opportunity gaps and working together to address inequalities. Supporting #IAmFirstGen will enable your business to further social mobility and celebrate first generation graduate colleagues.

The Future Quest Outreach Hub enables students, parents & carers, and school staff to access information and opportunities, as well as creating an axis for sustainable partnership working to shape outreach and its impact across the region. We can help your company to develop new and/or existing outreach work through our Outreach Hub toolkits, which can be used by businesses to help shape and target their outreach delivery.

The framework outlines the different levels of support you or your business can offer to #IAmFirstGen to support first in family learners, students, and graduates.

How else can you be involved?

If you or your company or organisation would like to get more involved with #IAmFirstGen please contact us via future.quest@uwe.ac.uk for further information.

We can also work with you and your communications team to help facilitate your organisations involvement.