The Empowering Practice Programme at the University of the West of England

This article outlines the Empowering Practice programme at the University of the West of England ‐ its content and its educational approach. Students are staff working in local residential and day care services for people with learning difficulties. Many of them do not have the standard entry requirements for entry to higher education. An evaluation of the programme is described and its findings presented. Students' academic performance has been good. More important, students reported significant improvements in their self‐confidence and ability to implement the principles of rights, independence, choice and inclusion set out in Valuing People. This was confirmed both by immediate line managers and by senior managers in their employing agencies. Further, the higher education setting of the programme was seen by all stakeholder groups as contributing to stronger outcomes of this kind than NVQ programmes. The programme closely matches a range of LDAF units at Level 3.