SFC news published since 2018. See SFC archived content for earlier news articles.
The balance between care and study
Blog – Going Higher and Further for Student Carers
Blog – Who Cares? Scotland and Care Day 2019
An award designed to improve the experience of student carers studying at college has been launched at City of Glasgow College.
Administered by the Carers Trust Scotland (CTS), the award incentives and encourages colleges to adopt a sustainable, whole institution approach to identifying, supporting and reporting on student carers.
SFC awarded £121,126 in funding to CTS in 2018, towards its work to help universities and colleges better support student carers with ‘The Going Higher and Further for Student Carers’ programme.
Senior Policy/Analysis Officer Anna Wallace, who represented SFC at the launch said it was an excellent event with speakers from City of Glasgow College, Carers Trust Scotland, SFC, GCU, CDN, Borders College as well as a Student Carer.
“It was great to see what work is already underway to support student carers, but also how much more can be done by working towards the Going Further Award, which is free to participate in thanks to our funding.
“SFC is delighted to help launch Going Further as a framework for colleges to provide the best support required for their student carers, and we look forward to seeing all colleges sign up to it, to help students with caring responsibilities achieve their full potential, in spite of any additional challenges they may experience.”
For more information, see: https://carers.org/going-further-scotland.
SFC data for 2016-17 shows that:
- 10,655 student carer enrolments took place across the 27 colleges in Scotland.
- 68% of student carers are aged 25+.
- 70% of student carers are female.
- 4% of student carers are care experienced.
- 17% declared that they have a disability.
- 22% of student carers declare having a mental health difficulty.