Kidscan Project Case Study- Skills Enhancement Programme

Posted on: 7 May 2021 in Connections in action

Kidscan provide University of Liverpool students with an opportunity to contribute to their amazing work towards combating children’s cancer via a real world project as part of our Skills Enhancement Programme.

Kidscan are a Salford-based charity dedicated to combating children’s cancer, with the aim of helping “every child that is diagnosed with cancer to survive and thrive”.  They’ve funded over 35 research projects since 2002, contributing to significant developments in cancer treatment.

Kidscan’s proposed project for the Skills Enhancement Programme (SEP) asked that the student group contributed to the planning & promotion of a fundraising activity for the charity, in the form of a virtual ‘Jailbreak’.  Students were to be tasked with working together to design the event, carry out a risk assessment, develop marketing strategies, handle recruitment and conduct an analysis & evaluation.

One in three of the student applicants to the SEP included Kidscan’s fundraising project as one of their preferred choices, and the group of successful applicants comprised three students from the University’s Faculty of Health & Life Sciences (studying Anatomy & Human Biology, Biological Sciences, and Tropical Disease Biology) and one from Humanities & Social Sciences (studying Communication & Media).

With the ultimate aims of raising money for Kidscan by planning & organising a virtual fundraiser, the group set about identifying key tasks which included designing graphics for promotion & the fundraising website and sourcing prizes to enhance the appeal of involvement.  To complete these tasks, the group made use of Canva for their graphic design, engaged with local independent organisations to source prizes and promoted the fundraiser to sports clubs & societies at the University whilst maintaining regular contact with the Kidscan team via a series of virtual meetings.

The students reflected on a number of challenges they encountered along the way – the timing of the event, how to ensure diversity & inclusion of participants, reliance on the engagement of others, and persuading organisations to provide prizes & incentives.  They were also able to celebrate a numbers of skills developed – touching upon their communication & collaboration, digital fluency, planning & organisation, and time management.  At the end of their time on the project, the students’ contributions had engaged over 50 fundraisers and generated almost £1000 – and that figure has since risen to almost £2500 as a legacy of their efforts.

Alison England, Community Fundraising Officer at Kidscan said that the students were “very professional and keen to do their best” and that their contributions had been “such a boost to [the charity] to have the students help raise awareness of their brand as well as an incredible amount of money”.  She emphasised that the students “all took on different roles within the programme and created everything themselves”.

Reflecting upon Kidscan’s experience of the Skills Enhancement Programme, it’s clear to see how this has proved to be an example of an experiential learning initiative leading to beneficial outcomes for an organisation.  The Employer Connections Team can support organisations with all aspects of design, promotion, recruitment and coordination of a variety of types of experiential learning opportunities to enable our students to gain meaningful experiences in ‘real world’ scenarios whilst contributing valuable ideas, products, and/or outcomes for the organisations with whom they collaborate.  Please contact us to find out more employerconnections@liverpool.ac.uk