Ahead of their Spring exams, BSc Economics and Mathematics student Xinyue and BA Economics student Max visited Eckington School to deliver a Discover Economics taster session. Our department works with Discover Economics, a campaign funded by the Royal Economic Society, aimed at improving representation in economics. As a partner, we offer taster sessions to local schools and organisations that do not teach Economics at A Level, to improve access and information for studying economics.
The session was delivered to a class of Y12 Mathematics students, who had previously had no formal education in economics. When asked at the start of the session, none of the students were considering or had considered studying Economics at university. At the end of the session, several students said they would now consider studying Economics at university, one of whom planned to study at the University of Sheffield.
The staff at Eckington School were grateful for the access to information that we delivered:
I know of at least one of the students who was there is now going to apply to study Economics at Sheffield University so it definitely had a positive impact on our students! If you have any more availability to come in again, we would love to welcome you back.
Eckington School
Eckington School has since invited the Department of Economics to attend their career event in July. One of our PhD students will attend, and deliver a presentation.
The 2022/23 academic year was our first year partnering with Discover Economics, so we plan to visit more organisations in the 2023/24 academic year. Following the success of our first session, we are excited to offer more classes to schools in and around Sheffield. Delivering this session was also a strong development opportunity for our Student Champions Xinyue and Max, as it provided an opportunity for our students to communicate economics to a different audience, and to experience the importance of broadening access to the study of economics.