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For community organisations
Run a university session for your young people, in one hour
Mosques, churches, charities and youth groups reach the students that schools miss. This free toolkit gives you everything needed to run one good session: a printable introduction to AVA, a ready-to-run 60-minute plan, and a signup sheet pattern. No training, no cost, no data handed to us.
One-page introduction
What AVA is, why it matters for your community, and what running a session involves. Print it for trustees, volunteers or a noticeboard.
60-minute session plan
Minute-by-minute: students explore subjects and find one real opportunity, live. Anyone can run it with no preparation.
Signup sheet pattern
Five columns on paper. Your organisation keeps the sheet and the relationship. We never see it: included in the session plan printout.
Ask us anythingThe session, minute by minute
What the printable plan contains. The live parts use AVA pages on a projector or on students' phones in pairs.
Welcome and one question
Ask the room: "Who here knows someone who went to university for a course like medicine or law?" Hands up. The point: for many students the honest answer is nobody, and that is exactly the gap tonight closes.
What selective courses actually ask for
Cover three facts. One: applications are decided on evidence the student controls (grades, a personal statement, admissions tests, interviews). Two: deadlines come early, mid October for medicine and Oxbridge. Three: preparation works and does not need to be paid for.
Live: explore subjects together
Put AVA on the projector or have students pair up on phones. Each student tries the subject explorer and notes two courses that surprised them. No accounts needed for the public pages; students with school accounts can sign in.
Live: find a real opportunity
Same pairs, now in the opportunity finder: each student finds one work experience placement, taster day or free programme they could actually apply to, and writes down its deadline.
Commitments and close
Each student says one thing they will do before next time (apply for the opportunity, finish the subject quiz, show a parent the parents page). Pass the signup sheet round so YOUR organisation can follow up. The sheet stays with you.
What you need
- A room, one hour, and ideally a projector or screen.
- Students in years 10 to 13 (ages 14 to 18). The live AVA tools are for 16 plus; younger students can follow on the projector.
- Phones or laptops for pairs of students, if available. One shared screen also works.
- No AVA training, no preparation beyond reading this plan once.
Your data stays yours
The signup sheet is paper, owned by your organisation. AVA collects nothing from this toolkit or from your session. If you later want student accounts, that happens through you, with safeguarding built in: content filtering on everything a student types, no public profiles, no messaging between students, and overnight access pauses.
Ready when you are
Tell us roughly how many young people you work with and we will help you get started. There is no charge for community organisations.