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Bridge to College Programme

An education programme helping Transition Year students develop the skills and experience they need to progress to and thrive in third level education. The overall aim of the Bridge to College programme is to provide a learning experience for young people to become confident learners through the use of technology and teamwork, and to raise their personal learning aspirations. Description: The Bridge to College programme is designed in three parts. Students will visit us in either Oriel House, Trinity College, or Citywise Education, Tallaght. Students work in teams to complete different tasks and activities over two sets of 4 day programmes, culminating in a Leadership Project.

Week 1 - Digital Media Literacy, Project Management & College Awareness
Leadership Project -Students use project management skills to develop a project/initiative for their own school community
Week 2 - STEM, Information Literacy, Research and Analysis of Data

Both weeks of the programme are designed to provide opportunities for students to explore topics/themes with an emphasis on challenging learning activities involving digital media, gaming, animation, mobile technology and web design, across a range of subject areas. Each part of the programme is focused on preparing TY students for third level and further education by helping them to develop their critical thinking, communication, creativity and project management skills. Students will be introduced to the Leadership Project in Week 1 and will be guided through the project with ongoing meet-ups (virtual and in person) throughout the year with a Trinity Access staff member. The aim is to help students develop leadership skills by producing or developing a project they themselves lead and manage with the skills gained from Bridge to College. Duration: Week 1 runs for 4 days, Tuesday-Friday inclusive and this happens before Christmas. Week 2 runs similarly for 4 days, Tuesday-Friday and will be run after Christmas. The Leadership project will start before Christmas with project development running after Christmas. Commitment from Schools: In order to participate in the programme, schools would need to commit to the following:

A linked teacher to liaise with the programme facilitator on recruitment and supervise carrying out a Leadership project in school
A minimum of 12 students to participate (for in-person programmes)
If the programme runs online, students will participate from home and will need to have a device and stable internet connection

Time Commitment from Students:

4 days (Week 1) before Christmas
4 days (Week 2) after Christmas
Time for students to develop their Leadership projects in school after Christmas (e.g. dedicating 1 hour per week to their projects)
One day after Christmas for an in-school/online session

Teachers will need to ensure that students who sign up for Bridge to College are willing to complete the whole programme, including Leadership project. Sessions:

9:30am-3pm Tuesday-Thursday for both Weeks 1 and 2
9:30-1pm Fridays for both Weeks 1 and 2
After Christmas break, the Leadership project will begin in the implementation phase of starting a project. Timeline will be January to early March.