Canadian Post-Secondary Access Partnership

We Are the Future – an exceptional event in Bucharest is to set an example and underline the importance of listening to young people as a key issue in the modernization of higher education which shall provide opportunities for all. A group of 20 young people aged 13-15 from various countries will express their thoughts on higher education and discuss the principles that SiS Catalyst projects stands for openly, honestly and critically.
Please read the full press release here.

Access to Higher Education: is it a right, a privilege or a necessity?
(Affordability, Quality, Equity & Diversity)

European Access Network is hosting its annual Conference in Zagreb. A great Conference, with lots of Key Note Speakers and interesting workshops for people that are passionate about making sure that Access (and Success) to Higher Education is a viable possibility. The international repesentation to this Conference is bringing at the table a prospective from and beyond the European borders.

For further details and registration please check the EAN website.

SiS_Catalyst_AnkaraDeclaration

We all know how important education is for children to be successful in their lives. One of the first observations people make when talking about post-secondary education is that it’s very expensive.
It’s a challenge to pay for education costs, and often the biggest question parents are faced with is: How soon should I start saving?
Here are some answers and useful tips.
Start saving early with an RESP
Open a Registered Saving Education Plan (RESP) for your child or children, and you can benefit from terrific incentives offered by the government. Apply for the Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG), and the government will deposit an extra percentage depending on your yearly contribution and income to help your child’s savings grow faster.
Anyone can open a RESP on behalf of a child — a parent, family member or friend of the family.
The Canada Learning Bond
Families that are recipients of the National Child Benefit Supplement can receive up to $2,000 in free education money for each of their children born after January 1, 2004. All parents have to do is to open an RESP account. No contribution is required from the parents to receive the bond — they simply must open the account on behalf of the child/ren.
The government will deposit $500 right away into the RESP, and could deposit up to $1,500 more by the time the child is 15 years old. That’s up to $2,000 for a child’s education after high school! This can be a great first step for a young person to consider post-secondary education as an option.
There are many options and providers for RESPs. Visit www.smartsaver.org to find a complete list and more information on RESPs, the CESG and Canada Learning Bond.
It’s never too early to set up your child for success!

Note: The YMCA of Greater Toronto is a partner in the SmartSaver initiative solely as an information provider, and does not sell RESPs or investments.

During the third week of November, Credit Canada is organizing a series of events with the purpose of giving Canadians further details about financial decisions and their impact.
In the Post–Secondary Education Access work we know how important it is that students and potentials students are aware of good financial management. Paying for tuition, cost of living, getting a loan, using credit cards (just to name a few) all require making informed spending decisions.
During the Credit Education Week, Canadians will have free access to financial literacy tools through a number of interesting events across Canada.

For a complete list of events, exciting contests and details please check the Credit Education Week Canada website.

The conference is going to support quality development and capacity building. It will underpin policy with current findings from practice within the area of Science in Society activities – where Children’s Universities definitely have been playing a relevant role in since years. Moreover, all this shall be reflected in the light of the individual learning journeys, presented from and issued among participants in SiS activities for children and young people in previous years – who are possibly adult students nowadays.

You can read more details about this exciting event on the SIS website , including the details about the Call for Papers (deadline September 21st, 2011).

LIVERPOOL, UK – 26 July 2011: The University of Liverpool has launched a £3.6 million initiative aimed at developing children’s ideas on new science and technology activities at schools, universities, and cultural organisations that will engage young people across Europe.

The Liverpool team are working with universities, as well as education departments at country and regional level, to create new delivery guidelines that will support institutions in developing projects aimed at children from families with ‘non-traditional’ higher education backgrounds. The four-year project involves a consortium of over 30 partners and advisors from across 23 countries. YMCA Canada is an advisor to the project.

Please see the complete SIS Press Release

Twitter is another popular application. It is a “micro blog.” A user posts a short text update of no more than 150 characters long. It is published over the network. Anyone can subscribe to this. Some Twitter users have a large following. It is a powerful source of trend spotting.

This is how the message above might look on Twitter (edited by Admin):
Twitter is a popular application. It is a “micro blog.” A user posts a short text of no more than 150 characters long. It is published over the network. Anyone can subscribe to this.

Three years ago when we have started delivering services for youth we have soon realized that we have to make sure we reach kids early on with the messaging around Post-Secondary Education and to start from simple things like building the PSE vocabulary.
At the first CPSAP Conference we’ve had a great Key Note Speaker, Tricia Jenkins (University of Liverpool, UK) who presented the tool that we were looking for! This tool is called Professor Fluffy, a great way of introducing Post-Secondary Education as a viable option for young people!

We will talk more about this great tool and how we have used it in Canada in another blog post – but for those who have inquired about it, please check the Professor Fluffy website !

This is a Professor that every child will like!

National College Access Network is going to host the annual Conference in St. Louis, Missouri from Monday, September 12 to Wednesday, September 14, 2011.
This is a great event, providing ample opportunities for learning best-practices and networking.
If you would like to find further information about this event or to register please check the NCAN website.