GREat Skills is a programme of workshops designed to support students to develop key skills relevant to their academic learning and their preparation for the transition to university and beyond.
“I really enjoyed the GREat Skills Workshops, I thought they were really interesting, well presented (never boring) and I think very useful.”
Teacher, Barking & Dagenham College
GREat Skills offers a variety of academic, personal and transferable skills workshops delivered by our trained student ambassadors and staff, aimed at students from our targeted schools and colleges. The GREat Skills workshops are suitable for all level 3 students, studying A levels, BTEC, IB, T Levels, Access courses or equivalent.
The workshops are designed to support students currently completing a piece of academic work, those who are due to complete one in the near future or those who would benefit from the opportunity of being able to build on key skills relevant to their future studies within a Higher Education setting.
These sessions are also particularly suitable for students taking the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) as they cover many of the main skills which students develop and are expected to demonstrate within their projects.
GREat Skills Workshops
| ACADEMIC SKILLS: | These workshops will support students currently completing a piece of academic work, or those who are due to complete one in the near future. |
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| Academic Writing | This practical workshop helps myth-bust the notion that “academic writing” is a complex piece of work. The activities focus on the skills students will need for any piece of academic-style writing they may have to complete, e.g., an EPQ log; university-level essays; or an apprenticeship/work report. Techniques explored in this workshop include objective thinking; reading the question; and the importance of proofreading. |
| Choosing your Question | Covers motivations for completing the research project/ EPQ or an academic piece of project. Students will have an opportunity to select a research topic of their choice (if applicable) and evaluate a potential research question/hypothesis by the end of the session. |
| Effective Presentations | A skill for life. Students will be able to list appropriate content to cover in a presentation and identify ways to make content interesting and engaging to the audience. |
Referencing & avoiding Plagiarism | A key session for students to understand the importance of referencing when completing academic work. Students will be able to evaluate when it is necessary to include references and be able to write references and insert appropriately making use of online tools where available. |
Reflective Writing | Understanding the importance of reflection of the students’ academic writing. Students will learn key features of reflective writing and demonstrate how reflection can be applied to academic writing and activities. |
Selecting & Evaluating Sources | The range of sources available are varied, this session teaches students to alter search items to find resources, to be able to scan and survey to quickly decide the relevance of sources and evaluate the reliability of sources of information based on timeliness, author, purpose, and proximity. |
| Revision Techniques | Exam periods – be it GCSEs, A Levels, mocks – can often be a stressful time. The activities within this revision masterclass are designed to help students: discover the revision styles that work best for them; identify the most effective ways to help them save time and retain information; and help manage common anxieties. |
| PERSONAL SKILLS: | These workshops will allow students to develop skills that they can implement in their current day to day lives. |
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| Careers Planning | Ideal for students consider the next stage of their education or considering embarking on the world of work. This workshop helps students consider what careers they can aim for – even if they have do not have an inkling prior to the session - and how best to achieve this goal. For instance: if they need an undergraduate/postgraduate degree level; an apprenticeship; work experience, etc. |
| Critical Thinking | Students will be able to identify and describe what critical thinking is, understand the importance of it and develop these essential skills with various activities to be able to use these in any examples. |
| Improving Adaptability | Understanding the meaning of adaptability and key characteristics and skills required for adapting to various professional and personal circumstances. Students will be able to describe methods for overcoming challenges and developing flexibility by the end of the session. (Formerly titled 'Developing Resilience'.) |
| Digital Literacy | Students will explore the key components to digital literacy such as finding, creating, and sharing online content and complete various activities to strengthen their digital literacy skills. |
| Independent Learning | Students will be able to identify their learning style, explain the importance of effective note taking and tools which can be utilised and the benefits of good time management skills. |
| Managing Stress | Students will identify potential causes of stress (before/present/future), describe some of the effects of too much stress and use strategies and support networks to manage stress. |
| TRANSFERRABLE SKILLS: | These workshops will allow students to develop skills that are important for every student to strengthen as they are key for their current studies and no matter what they choose to pursue in life. |
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Active Listening & Communication | Students will explore the importance of these key skills used in everyday life, exploring the relationship between the two and learn techniques to improve these through various activities. |
Attention to Detail | Understanding the importance of attention to detail and ways to improve this core skill using various activities in law, maths, and media as examples. |
| Leadership | Students will identify what leadership means and understand the importance in not just academia, also in day-to-day life skills. The importance and need to develop self-awareness and evaluate own leadership style will be included too. |
| Problem Solving | Students will learn to accurately assess a situation and arrive at a positive solution using a model that can be applied to solve any problem with engineering as an example. |
| Teamwork & Networking | The ability to work well within a team is a valued skills amongst admissions tutors and employers. This workshop not only gives students an insight into how they work within a team, but also helps develop their confidence in promoting themselves & negotiating with potential professional networks. |
| Time Management | Students will explore the importance of time management and complete various activities within business as an example with some tips and tricks on how to strengthen this skill. |
How are workshops delivered?
These workshops are all delivered using an application named Mentimeter, a highly interactive format which allows students to engage directly with the content. For this, we ask that teachers permit the use of phones, tablets or computers during these sessions.
Our trained student ambassadors and staff are able to deliver the GREat skills workshops in person or virtually across a variety of platforms. To find out about pre-recorded versions of these workshops, please click here.
These workshops are usually 45-60 minutes in duration. Dates and times can be agreed to fit in with the timetable for your students or your study programme.
Data Collection, Evaluation & Feedback
We encourage all participants to register their details with us, so that we can evaluate our workshops and the schools/colleges we work with. If you would like to learn more, you can find further information on our GREat Futures webpage.
We also encourage all participants and teachers/advisers to provide feedback at the end of our workshops, which supports us to improve the content and quality of our workshops.
GREat Skills Scholarship
Students who successfully participate in a minimum of 5 of our outreach activities during their Level 3 studies and who will be joining us for their undergraduate studies in September 2025, will potentially be eligible for nomination by school staff for a substantial cash scholarship of £2000.
Further details on the eligibility criteria can be found on our GREat Skills Scholarship page.
Applications for 2025/26 will close at 4pm on Monday 2nd June 2025.
“The Plagiarism workshop was excellent – exactly what our students needed and delivered in an interactive fashion.”
Teacher, Northfleet School for Girls
Contact Details
If you would be interested in booking or finding out more about our GREat Skills Programme, please contact us at outreach@gre.ac.uk