Stephanie Hevingham rewarded by Greater Manchester Talent Match

Stephanie Hevingham with Katherine Bird

Stephanie Hevingham, from Middleton, was recognised during an awards ceremony with the Greater Manchester Talent Match charity on Tuesday.

Stephanie was one of the students joined by staff from Greater Manchester Talent Match to thank them for their input into a research project on volunteering.

Greater Manchester Talent Match is a Big Lottery-funded research programme offering one-to-one, long-term support to young people to shape journeys towards employment.

The research carried out by the students looked to identify whether volunteering had an impact for young people with a number of barriers to employment in their journey to work.

Stephanie, who is studying criminology, said: “It felt really good to work on real data from a real charity. There’s a real sense of achievement for us as students because we have analysed data and our findings are going to be used by the charity to see where this approach works.’’

“We have all got a sense of satisfaction knowing that the results of the research will help to change people’s lives by influencing policy and practice in the future’’.

The students found a link between the confidence gained through volunteering and how ready young people were to progress into employment.

As a result, many of the students who helped analyse the information considered taking part in volunteering as a vital step in a young person’s pathway to work.

Dr Daiga Kamerāde, senior lecturer in quantitative research methods in sociology/criminology, said, “It was great for the students to be able to apply their data analysis skills to a real-life project.

"We will be continuing to work with the programme to identify where we can carry out further research.”

Katherine Bird, senior project officer at Greater Manchester Talent Match, said: “The relationship we have built with the university during the research has been brilliant.

"We were so impressed by all of the students’ dedication to the research and we are pleased that we are able to reward them for their hard work.

"We look forward to further collaboration which will in turn benefit young people across Greater Manchester.”