Glasgow launch new educational centres for children

The centres, located in Govan in Glasgow and Craigmillar in Edinburgh, opened in April and officially launch this week on Tuesday October 5 for Govan and Thursday October 7 for Craigmillar. A third centre will launch in Maryhill in Spring 2022.    

The scheme aims to connect young people with universities to provide learning support, workshops, mentor schemes with university students and the opportunity to discuss going to university and their future careers.

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Nine-year-old Leo has been attending the centre for three months, and said: “It has given me a lot of education like Computer Science and Maths as well as fun activities. It has helped me think about what I want to do when I leave school and the job I want to do, to be a police officer like my grandpa, and I would need to go to university for that.”

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The initiative involves the universities in aiming to inspire children from less privileged backgrounds and help them achieve their potential – which could mean going to university.

Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice-Chancellor University of Glasgow, said: “As an anchor institution in our city, the University of Glasgow has a civic duty to support and empower young people across our communities to reach their full potential.

We believe that these new centres will help prepare children from an early age to raise their aspirations and give them the confidence to see that going to university is a real, viable option for them.”

The scheme has already found success in this area, with 71% of school leavers who attended a centre in 2020 going on to university.