Blog: Social Mobility Awareness Day

For a new and important occasion, Chris Eley from Paradise Wildlife Park writes about social mobility in the zoo industry :

On Social Mobility Awareness Day it is important to consider how we can address social mobility within the world of zoos and conservation more broadly. At Paradise Wildlife Park we decided that there were ways and means of giving students aged 16-19 wider access to higher education.

So, what is the current context? Unfortunately access to higher education for disadvantaged students across the UK is becoming an increasingly challenging task. Those students who are ‘First in Family’ (FIF) to university face significant barriers to entering higher education against those from other backgrounds. The ‘Key to Conservation’ programme gives 16–19-year-olds the skills and experiences to lay the foundations of an excellent UCAS personal statement increasing their opportunity to gain access to a higher education course of their choice. Paradise Wildlife Park welcomed students throughout September and October 2022 to learn about the important role the zoo community plays in conservation, whilst empowering them to add “super-curricular” experiences to enhance their UCAS application.

This free initiative aimed to widen participation in HE for FIF students across the county of Hertfordshire in accessing conservation related degree courses. The initiative aimed to ‘level the playing field’ but also to bring increased diversity to the BIAZA community.

The programme offered, allowed students to undertake activities that centre on the role of zoos in conservation, conservation education, research and enrichment whilst allowing them to gain skills seen as desirable by university admissions tutors including creativity, teamwork, and independence of thought.

The programme saw 39 individuals undertake the programme over 4 days in September/October 2022.  Allowing them to increase their knowledge of the role of zoos in conservation but also importantly develop an increased confidence in applying for a university course and how to tackle the challenging UCAS personal statement effectively. The programme also saw 26% attendance of those students who do not come from a white British ethnic background.

One of the students who benefited from the programme summarised her experience, "recently, I attended 'Key to Conservation Day' at Paradise Wildlife Park, this was a remarkable opportunity as it gave me further insight on the scientific research skills, critical evaluation and teamwork. This experience most certainly confirmed my commitment and desire to study Zoology at university".

Chris Eley - Education and Sustainability Officer and Chair of the BIAZA DEAI Working Group

All blogs reflect the views of their author and are not a reflection of BIAZA's positions.