Greater Manchester Higher is a collaboration of universities and further education colleges across Greater Manchester, who are working together to provide high-quality impartial information, advice, and guidance about higher education. The aim is to raise young peoples’ awareness and aspirations.

You can find out more in the ‘About’ section of this website

As a Greater Manchester higher ambassador the main events you can be involved in are Student Life workshops and IAG stands.

There are also many opportunities to be involved in subject-specific activities, mentoring, Uni:4U summer schools, targeted learner activities, and campus visits.

It is okay if you do not know the answer to a question, you are not an expert. But don’t tell young people/teachers/parents information that you are unsure of.

Instead, if there is a member of GM Higher staff with you, ask them to help out, or,  you can direct people to the GM Higher website, or use the Uni and Me guides that you’ll have with you when working at an IAG stand.

You can also tell people about our social media, and you can use any other resources that you have with you at the time.

If a young person discloses something to you, there are three steps you should take:

1) Listen and reassure. Be non-judgemental, do not ask probing questions and make it clear that you will need to pass this information on to a lead member of staff.

2) Record the information. Do this as soon as possible, and write it down word for word (to the best of your ability). You can write it down on plain paper first if needed and then ask for a Disclosure of Information form later. Give any pieces of paper with information on to the event lead/safeguarding person to dispose of.

3) Inform appropriately. Make sure to inform a lead member of the staff. If the disclosure takes place in a school, inform the teacher leading the event (unless it is about them) and do not discuss the situation with other ambassadors. Confidentiality is vital.

Your role in a Student Life workshop is to support the member of staff who will be leading the workshop.

This means, when they ask for your advice or ask you to talk about what it’s like to be a student, you can offer your own opinions and discuss your own experiences.

You can also get involved by helping the young people when it comes to doing their group tasks, by asking them questions and making sure they’re engaged.

At the end of the session, there will be a Q&A where young people may wish to ask you questions about different aspects of student life.

There is a prompt sheet to help you prepare for the workshop.

An example would be if you get asked ‘what is it like to live in halls?’ and you live at home:

If you don’t have your own personal experience to share, explain that you didn’t live at home, but you may also have some information about halls, perhaps from a friend telling you or from the information you have seen and heard.

This goes for any other question that might not directly apply to you. Use a friends’ experience, or talk about some of the information that you might already know about it, despite not going through it personally. But, make sure you don’t make things up!