Education is recognised as one of the best protections against poverty. Supporting people through education and into secure and well-paid jobs improves their overall wellbeing and reduces their risk of financial hardship.
We also know that experiencing poverty and trauma in childhood can affect someone’s ability – and opportunities – to learn.
Since the Trust was established in 1961, support for education has been an important part of our work. Now we hope to build on this heritage by deepening the understanding of how access to education and skills interact with poverty and complex trauma.
Throughout 2022, our Education Pathways team has undertaken significant discovery work, including convening grant holders to listen to their views and commissioning external research into which educational interventions could have the biggest impact on poverty and trauma for young people across Scotland. This led to a focus on mentoring and tutoring as early priorities for the thematic group to focus on. Additional priorities for the next three years will become clearer through ongoing discovery work.
In order to stay up-to-date with our work in this area, all updates will be shared on this page. You can also join our mailing list or follow our social channels.
The Robertson Trust Scholarship
The Robertson Trust Scholarship aims to improve access, retention and graduate outcomes for under-represented young people in higher education.
Managed in-house by The Robertson Trust, it is now in its 30th year. Over that time, the Scholarship has provided financial support to over 2000 young people. Through our bespoke self-development programme, Journey to Success, Robertson Scholars are also given access to high quality internships, mentoring, training and wellbeing support.
Find out more about this work here.
Our Funds
We are particularly interested in work that focuses on the following issues:
- supports educational engagement and attainment (including engagement of parents and wider family members)
- supports people with the transition through education and training to work
Types of initiatives could include: Widening access to education, engaging families in learning, mentoring schemes, tutoring, digital skills and access, youth work, volunteering, apprenticeships and practical placement learning.
Find out more about how to apply here.
Programme Awards
We currently do not have any open calls for our Programme Awards.
To keep informed of future funding opportunities, you can sign up to our mailing list or follow our social channels.
