about push

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​Push are a not-for-profit organisation that supports school-leavers and students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. For nearly 30 years we have offered HEIs an irreverent and powerful way to support their widening participation and outreach initiatives. Our USP is that we use professional performers (comedians/actors/screenwriters) to help young people to make well exciting informed decisions about their futures and to develop their employability (skills, learning, social capital) to make it happen. Our sessions are followed up with free resources such as our monthly blogs, articles, student newsletter and Youtube channel.

We never ‘sell’ a specific HEI to students, as that's not what we’re about. Instead, we collaborate with HEIs as an independent and impartial third party to enhance your messages. Our sessions ensure that students are thoroughly informed about how varied their higher education path can be, and how the best place for them is the one that matches their specific needs the best. 

We inspire students who would never have thought of higher education before to now consider it. We want the right people to go to the right institutions so that they're set on the path to personal and professional success, which every HE institution should want from their applicants (and non-applicants) too...so student satisfaction scores stay high and drop out rates stay low.
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By combining your outreach or WP initiatives with Push, you’re also hugely helping schools meet their Ofsted and DfE statutory duty on providing impartial and independent careers education to students. By helping Push engage more students about higher education and proactive informed choices, you’re not only ticking your OFFA and OFS boxes, you’re helping a school tick theirs.

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HEAR THE HISTORY OF PUSH

"Spot on in terms of getting the students engaged in thinking realistically about their future options.  They particularly appreciated the presenter's sense of humour which meant that they did not feel they were being lectured to."
- Ely College 6th Form

we've worked with...

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We've worked with dozens of universities including; ​

Click here to hear details of how we worked with some of these universities.

READ WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT US

see us in action

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Here’s a quick two-minute snapshot of who we are and what we do. ​Go on, watch us work our magic.

Here’s a trailer for the inspirational comedy careers day we ran for students at Birmingham City University. Don’t just take our word for it: the laughter speaks for itself.

​​HOW CAN WE SUPPORT YOU?

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Outreach programmes for marketing

We work with universities to reach a wider range of schools and sixth forms, spreading an independent, impartial message that meets the needs of each institution. We merge our careers education information with examples of your strengths as an university, and match you with the best fit students.

For example, for the University of the West of England (UWE), we visited 15 schools to deliver our popular sessions; 'Why Go To University' and 'Choosing A Uni'.

We also offered marketing collateral directly to the students, and gave examples of how UWE could support them in a neutral context of the broader choices they would be making over the coming years. ​​

Outreach programmes for access - hard to reach schools

We understand that reaching schools is a priority. Push are proud to work both with university outreach teams and NCOPs to support set initiatives, and we achieve this through our independent live sessions which are both impartial and cost effective. We also explain how we can help you tackle the Office for Students' Risks here. 

Currently, we're currently working with FORCE in association with the University of Hull, where we're visiting a continually increasing list of local, targeted schools.

FORCE is part of the National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP) scheme and is a regional network covering Humberside and parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. They aim to support pupils in achieving their potential through raising aspirations and increasing participation in further and higher education routes. 

To read more about our ongoing collaboration with FORCE, head here

Training sessions for undergraduate students - employability and comedy careers

We run training sessions for undergraduate students to increase awareness of their own employability and how to develop it.

We run these highly engaging and fun sessions either as a one off event or as a program over several weeks. For example, at Birmingham City University, we ran an evening that consisted of a mix of comedy and careers. This was held in the student union bar, where the student feedback averaged at 4½ out of 5 for satisfaction and enjoyment. Click here to see video footage.

One of our student testimonials read: "Really enjoyable & helpful session. After that session I will definitely change the way I think. All  the information & advice was really helpful. Really good speech from all the people that made & arranged the meeting. Positive people make it easy for 4 hours to go so quickly."

ENQUIRE ABOUT PUSH

continued support

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After our live engagement, we offer a follow up service of information and advice via email, directly to students. We currently have over 7,000 UK students that have opted into receiving Push Post, our free monthly newsletter which features our latest blog posts. We also have our Student Zone on this website for students to access anytime.

For HEIs, we’re able to capture a significant amount data from students (with their permission), including direct email addresses they may provide us with, should they like to be contacted about more opportunities from your institution.

Our data collection offers a cost-effective and simple solution for HEIs who are struggling to reach certain student demographics – we inspire students and inform them of the differing and exciting opportunities the university experience offers, then gather details of the ones who have specifically expressed an interest in your institution.

Once collected, we hand the data over to your team within days, either collated or raw depending on your preference. With this, you can follow up with the young people who feel you offer exactly what they want from the next few years of their lives.

BOOK PUSH

EMBEDDING EMPLOYABILTY INTO THE CURRICULUM

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How do we embed employability into the curriculum with a common language that engages and excites young people?

That is the question Push founder and chairman Johnny Rich explores in this 20 minute talk at The University of Greenwich, to an audience of academics, WP & outreach staff. Employability skills can be a droll subject to the uninitiated (or even the initiated who talk about it regularly), and it is more often than not confused with employment skills (the traits needed to apply for and successfully get a job). ​

Folks don't often associate the word 'joy' with employability, but that is precisely what Johnny is here to explain in this insightful (and funny) guide to the topic. Johnny draws on research (including his own) to back up his and Push's theory on how to develop a straight-talking language around employability for young people. 

This can be relayed across the curriculum in a way that not only helps them understand what employers want, but crucially gets them excited about developing it. This is done by starting with the individual and one's uniqueness, and getting students thinking deeply about what they want from life. ​​​

MEET THE TEAM BEHIND PUSH

improving graudate Employability

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Push want to get university students deeply thinking about employability instead of the misplaced focus on employment - by running deeply informative (and very funny) interactive events that get young people engaged in the idea of doing what you love and loving what you do, and how adding value each day to an employer can be extremely fulfilling and rewarding.

​Our founder and Chief Executive Johnny Rich is a though-leader in the world of higher education. HEPI published his commissioned paper Employability: Degrees of Value, which calls for higher education to improve graduate employability. The report is published as part of the HEPI series of polemical Occasional Papers. Click here to read the report in a new window.

employability and higher education

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How do you produce an 'employable' graduate? What is it? And, is it something that affects young people's decision-making when choosing a university (or even to go in the first place?). In an article for Pearson, Our Chief Executive argues that "higher education is good at producing employable students...the problem is that it is all a bit of a mystery".

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT OUR CEO