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Higher Education Learning Support

We offer a range of services to support you across all areas of student life, with specialist support available for students with disabilities.

Contact Us
Right from the start, our staff and student support teams will ensure you have access to all the support you need.

We are always on hand to provide you with advice, support and guidance so that you can achieve your ambitions and make the most of your time at College.

  • Disability Support
  • Higher Education Learning Mentors (HELMs)
  • IT Support

Higher Education Learning Mentors (HELMs)


The HELMs team provides a range of study skills support to degree-level students.

Whether you need to make sense of referencing or you haven’t been in a classroom in years, or you simply want to improve your grades, we’re here to help.

We offer one-to-one sessions to support you in areas such as assignment planning, researching and surviving exams.

We also run group sessions on topics such as referencing, revision and reflective writing. 

If you’d rather send your work to us and discuss it via email, phone or Skype we can arrange this for you too.

As well as providing ongoing planned guidance, we can also help if your situation changes and/or you experience difficulties that impact on your studies.

We’ll let you know more about the HELM service once you enrol.

If you have any questions about HELMs, please email us at helminfo@blackpool.ac.uk.

Meet HELMs

You can book an appointment with one of our friendly Higher Education Learning Mentors. Click the link below to fill out a quick booking form.

Book an Appointment

Flying Start workshops

Get your degree off to a flying start with one of our 'pre-degree' sessions.

Flying Start sessions are half-day workshops to help you prepare for your new degree-level course. These are available to to all students who have enrolled on a Level 4 course, they include tips on how to learn independently, and how to research and manage your time effectively.

The sessions are a great way to meet other new students, get to know your surroundings and generally get a head start on your studies.

Prepare for degree-level study with Flying Start

Disability Support


We will contact anyone who declares a disability on their UCAS application and offer an interview to discuss any learning needs.

We will help to identify any additional support requirements, liaise with course tutors and offer advice on applying for Disabled Student's Allowance (DSA).


As a student, we will do all we can to help if one or more of the following may apply to you, which could be perceived as a barrier to achieving your goals:
 
  • You have a learning difficulty or disability
  • You have a learning difference
  • You are a Care Leaver
  • You are estranged from family
  • You are a carer
  • You have not studied in a while
  • You have moved away from home to study
  • You are juggling study with other commitments such as work and family
Disabled Student's Allowance (DSA)

DSA is available to Degree-level students to help cover the study-related costs you have due to a mental health problem, long-term illness or any other disability.

More on Disabled Student's Allowance

IT Support


The Higher Education Learning Support Team offers a range of IT support that allows you to refresh or develop skills specific to studying a higher education course.

Examples of the support we offer include:

  • Basic support with Microsoft applications such as Word, Publisher and PowerPoint
  • Support with College-specific programs such as the College email, Moodle and library databases
  • Support with internet searches and internet safety
  • Development of digital literacy skills such as communicating in different media

We also offer help with networked literacy support software.
 

Texthelp

Texthelp is a a reading and writing tool for PC and MAC users, which reads most typed information aloud from the computer to help identify grammatical errors and proof read written work.

The software also includes an advanced spell-checker, dictionary, thesaurus and many other features along with ‘how to use’ tutorials.

Visit Texthelp for more information.
 

MindView

MindView is a networked visual learning tool to enable you to organise ideas graphically, ideal for planning and organisation/project management.

Visit MindView for more information.
 

Essay Writer

Essay Writer, an essay writing guide with animated tutorials and user guides for essay creation. Features include essays/maps, subject dictionaries and bibliographic references with built-in Text-to-Speech.

Student Life

It's not all work, work, work.

Experience Student Life at B&FC

Learning Resource Centres

Our Learning Resource Centres offer excellent facilities and are equipped with everything you need to help you study and succeed.

Explore our LRCs

Contact Us

Don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or concerns about our Higher Education Learning Support services.

To enquire about disability and additional diversity support:

Email: dsainfo@blackpool.ac.uk

To enquire about Study Skills Support, Wellbeing Support, Flying Start and IT Support:

Email: helminfo@blackpool.ac.uk