Hoping to go to college?
This page includes helpful information if you are planning to go to college.
What help is available?
Ask your school or college SENCO and careers advisers about how they can help you decide on:
- Which course
- Which college
- How to get help with your application
- Look on the college websites or use The Peterborough Post-16 Education Offer 2023 to help you
- Chose a course and apply
Click on any of the blue words to find out more.
Video Tours
See our colleges
Some of our colleges have recently made information videos to help you familiarise yourself with the buildings. Keep checking this page and the college websites for these updates.
City College Peterborough Tour
View a virtual campus tour of Peterborough College on this webpage
Upcoming Open Events
Peterborough College
Visit Peterborough College to meet their tutors, explore their campus and learn about their facilities.
All open events start from 5.30PM and finish at 7.30PM.
Upcoming open event dates:
- Thursday 13th October 2022
- Tuesday 15th November 2022
- Thursday 2nd February 2023
- Tuesday 14th March 2023
- Tuesday 23 May 2023
To attend an open event, you must register.
Stamford College
Visit Stamford College to meet their tutors, explore their campus and learn about their facilities.
All open events start from 5.30PM and finish at 7.30PM.
Upcoming open event dates:
Wednesday 5th October 2022
Thursday 3rd November 2022
Wednesday 11th January 2023
Tuesday 21st March 2023
Thursday 25 May 2023
To attend an open event, you must register.
Applications - online or postal?
Applications
City College Peterborough - accepting online and postal applications
Contact Skills for Learning Recruitment team
Complete the application form
Stamford College - accepting online applications
Peterborough College - accepting online applications
admissions & vocational courses options
on line chat with an advisor
Interviews and Offers
Changes to interviews
Going into a college for an interview is not possible for the moment due to COVID-19.
Colleges are either holding virtual interviews or contacting young adults to discuss their applications.
City College Peterborough - virtual interviews and tours on Wednesdays.
Stamford College - telephone interviews for Skills for Work and Living applicants. All mainstream applicants will receive a conditional offer.
Peterborough College - no interviews. All applicants receive a conditional offer.
What happens next?
The next steps
Due to the changing guidelines for COVID-19 it is best to keep checking your college websites for the most up-to-date information. Colleges are working hard to ensure you have the best possible transition.
City College Peterborough: Transitions and Information
Stamford College: What happens next?
Peterborough College: conditional offer and Steps to success programme in September.
Links to courses
Follow these thinks to find various courses
The Peterborough Post-16 Education offer Academic year 2022-23
5 Tips if you are looking to go to University
These tips have been sourced from a blog by Hannah Louise.
Hannah Louise, a member of the FLARE disabled children and young people's group, gives her top tips for young people with autism who are looking to go to uni.
The Blog is on the Council for Disabled Children website.
"Hi, my name is Hannah Louise! I am 18 years old and have just completed (very successfully) my A-levels. In September I started my university course; I am studying to become a primary school teacher in Sheffield and loving it!"
My top five tips for people with disabilities and special educational needs (SEN) when starting uni!
1.) When applying to university make sure you go as many open days as you need! It will help you to understand course in more depth and can allow you to evaluate if you believe that this is the course for you. More information prevents anxiety.
2.) Make sure that you apply for Disabled student support. It is really helpful and allows for all reasonable adjustments to be considered and may be accepted. It has helped me mounds and mounds. It is one of the most important of my tips.
3.) Make sure that the university is accessible for you and that you will be able to travel around the university, visit as much as you can and try to find the less busy routes to places where you need to go, this allows you to travel quicker without feeling intimidated or overwhelmed.
4.) Make sure if you’re travelling:
- You do travel training to make sure that you know when the quieter trains are and how to get to and from uni.
- You apply for a disabled students railcard or bus pass to save your money and thus are able to fund other needs.
- Have strategies in place when things don’t go to plan to avoid stress and anxiety.
5.) Have fun, work hard and be better than you could ever think. Remember to put effort in and also have fun, try to socialise as much as you can and prove people you are better than they ever imagined. Why prove you’re the same when you can improve and be a better person?
Your disability does not define you, there is ability on disabled people we just need a little support. YOU ARE CAPABLE OF AMAZING THINGS. Keep on going and you will do great!
The 5 Day Offer
Who is the 5 day offer for?
The “Five Day Offer” is a supportive framework which focuses on young people aged 16+ (with a learning disability) who are leaving full time education. It helps them to develop links around further learning, independent living skills, volunteering, paid work and leisure in their local community.
You will typically have had an Education, Health and Care plan
- Be aged 16-25
- Will have a recognised learning disability
What is the 5 day offer?
The purpose of the 5 day offer in Peterborough is to help prepare you to make a successful transition to adulthood.
Through primary and into secondary school you have been used to doing something every day, Monday to Friday. As you move on to college and 6th form you might find that most further education and post 16 courses are offered over 3 days.
The 5 day offer is a package of provision and support across education, health and care that can be put together to meet your needs to cover up to 5 days a week. The 5 days do not have to be at one provider and can include time in different settings and with different providers and include a range of activities to compliment the education outlined within your education health and care plan EHCP.
There is no requirement to have a 5 day offer and some young people are able to structure their week to build in their existing hobbies, interests, part-time work or volunteering or are able to undertake coursework and homework independently or with other students outside of lessons, as well as socialising with their college or 6th form peers with the education environment.
The package, which does not need to include study towards formal qualifications, can include activities such as:
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volunteering or community participation
-
work experience
-
independent travel training
-
skills for living in semi-supported or independent accommodation
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training to develop and maintain friendships
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access to local facilities
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physiotherapy
These activities can tie in with vocational studies, for example, volunteering in a work area you are studying or be different and linked to your hobbies or interests.
What can it cover?
The 5 day offer in Peterborough can be built around your existing post 16 education; for example courses delivered at our 3 colleges
- City College Peterborough
- Peterborough College
- Stamford College
How to put a 5 day offer together
From year 9 on-wards at the annual review of your EHCP the four preparing for adulthood themes will be discussed and focus on the outcomes you want to achieve under each heading:
- Employment and education
- Friends, Relationships and Community
- Independent Living
- Good Health
Once you have had an offer of a place or started at college or 6th form; you will have an idea of your typical week at college and what days you will do which lessons and any work experience or placements. There will be things in your EHCP that you would like to do/achieve.
Step One
First have a discussion with tutor/EHCP coordinator and build up a typical week taking your college time table as starting point, then think about what else you would like to do. Write out a timetable for the week and add activities you are doing for each day.
Step Two
Identify opportunities from a range of sources – this can be existing websites, or through a discussion with your family or others who know you well. You can then add these to your typical week.
You don’t have to do activities across all 5 days and can put together a timetable for 4 days, as the 5 day offer can be up to 5 days. It is also okay to plan in some time with your friends or family or individual study.
Step Three
You might find that something you really want to do (for example swimming or sailing) is only available on a day you are timetabled to be at college. Sometimes college can swap days so talk to your tutor about swapping college sessions if there is only 1 day when an activity is on offer.
Where to find opportunities
There are lots of places to find out about opportunities to include in your 5 day offer.
Get Yourself Active is a national programme which aims to find ways for disabled people to get active in their local area. It is run nationally and supported by Inspire Peterborough and Disability Peterborough. Click on the blue links below to go to the websites to find lots of information about local sporting activities.
You can also put disability Peterborough into the keyword search box on the top of any of the Local Offer pages, to find a list of things to do. Here are a few examples:
Peterborough Disabled Angling Academy
English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS)
Disability Sports Programme - Peterborough Adapted Cycling Scheme
Access to Work grant scheme
Access to Work is a government grant scheme which supports disabled people in work. Access to Work might pay for:
- a British Sign Language interpreter
- specialist equipment
- extra transport costs, such as a taxi where no public transport is available
Access to Work can also pay for assessments to see what you need at work. You can apply for Access to Work up to 6 weeks before you start work.
Find lots more information on the SCOPE website
Claiming benefits in their own right as a young adult
Many young disabled people have the option of claiming Universal Credit as a young disabled adult. Normally you need to be at least 18 years old to claim Universal Credit, but some 16 and 17-year-olds can also claim. This includes a 16 or 17-year-old who is submitting medical certificates from their GP.
Most young people who are receiving education cannot get Universal Credit, although certain groups can. For example, those who study part-time or those who remain in full-time non-advanced education beyond the August after their 19th birthday.
If your child gets Universal Credit, you will lose any benefits you get for them as part of your family. Universal Credit is a means-tested benefit, but if your son or daughter claims it, the Department for Work and Pensions will only look at their income and capital and not yours.
Find lots more advice on the Contact for families with disabled children website