The Robertson Scholarship aims to support young people aged 16 to 25 to overcome financial and social barriers to gain the university education and career they aspire to. As well as receiving a financial bursary, scholars also take part in a self-development programme called Journey to Success. This offers a range of training sessions, networking events and internships throughout the academic year. Combined, these aim to help young people break down some of the barriers they might be experiencing to access further education and their career of choice.
This year marks the 30th anniversary since the Trust began providing bursary support to students who face barriers to entering university and our work in this area has grown organically over that time. The existing Journey to Success programme was introduced seven years ago and has seen a number of changes since its inception. The Robertson Trust has also been changing. In October 2020, we launched our 10-year strategy which focuses on reducing the impacts of poverty and trauma for people across Scotland.
As the Trust now has a clearer focus for what we want to achieve overall, we are commissioning an independent evaluation of the Robertson Scholarship. This will help us to understand:
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What differences it is contributing to.
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Which activities are having the greatest impact, and for whom.
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How our work in this area could have the greatest impact on poverty and trauma and the potential for changes to the programme to do so.
We want scholars to be actively involved at each stage of this evaluation, including gathering data, making sense of the findings, and helping to shape the future of what is delivered and how.
We will use the findings to inform how the programme is delivered in future years.
The deadline for proposals is 5pm on Tuesday 31st January 2023.
More information on the purpose and scope of the evaluation can be found in our Invitation to Tender.
If you have any questions, or would like to put in an expression of interest, please email Cassy Rutherford (Learning and Communications Manager) at TRTComms@therobertsontrust.org.uk