In towns and cities throughout the UK, collaborative partnerships enable Saturday Clubs to offer young people greater access to high-quality learning programmes and a deeper awareness of the opportunities in their area. Strategic relationship-building by individual Clubs is key to this, and creates an ecosystem of support that has widespread advantages for Club members.

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For the past 15 years, engaging with a diverse range of cross-sector partners has proved an effective way of broadening the ways in which a Saturday Club can benefit its young members. Building relationships within the educational, cultural and industry sectors, at both local and national levels, expands a Club’s reach and its capacity to provide members with a greater awareness of the learning and career pathways open to them. In addition, this approach has the advantage of creating a sustainable model for an individual Club’s development, which can be adapted to suit local needs and opportunities.

On a macro-scale, collaboration with FE and HE institutions, cultural institutions and industry provides the foundations for key elements of the Saturday Club’s national programme, such as its London and Manchester Visits, Summer Show and Masterclass series, while establishing micro-connections with local schools, businesses, youth and community groups helps boost regional Club member recruitment and the variety of place-specific learning experiences a Club can offer.

All forms of Saturday Club partnership share the goal of opening more doors for young people, particularly those from underserved and under-represented backgrounds, and communities who may not have been able to access certain places and spaces before. Additionally, they may have been unable to pursue any form of paid- for extracurricular education, or lacked the awareness of how they may do so locally, for free.

Partnership working in a community context has the added advantages of creating a local network within which expertise and the undertaking of developing a Saturday Club can be shared, and of building a sense of civic engagement that can attract new partners to local Club networks. Connecting with diverse organisations also helps ensure that young people know that a Saturday Club exists in their area, and that there are multiple avenues they can take to further their interests. Where different organisations and individuals can broaden horizons and provide enriching educational experiences locally, young people’s relationship with their own community can be greatly enhanced as well as their aspirations about their future options.

Local partnership working in practice

Many Clubs and their host institutions take the wide view when seeking potential partners to maximise the local impact of their Club. At the University of Derby, which runs a Society&Change Club, Dr Rhiannon Jones, Associate Professor (Civic Practice), sought out a variety of stakeholders to help root the university’s Club in the surrounding area and expand its activities. A contributor to a panel discussion on partnership working at the Tutors’ Conference this year, Rhiannon shared her experience of collaborative working and of connecting with a spectrum of organisations:

“Collaboration and partnership working are critical to the setting up and running of our Saturday Club. If we didn’t have these relationships in place, we couldn’t do what we want to do for young people in our area. I had initial conversations with several chief executives of local organisations in Derby to sell a dream about what we could do if we worked together. Through these meetings we established partnerships with Derby County Community Trust, Derby Theatre and Artcore, a local community organisation. Other organisations which couldn’t commit to a full partnership could commit to enabling or hosting individual Club sessions.”

Taking a similar approach in forming cross-sector relationships in its vicinity, Bracknell and Wokingham College, which runs a Film&Screen Club, has worked closely with Wokingham Borough Council and Resource Productions to bring Club members into contact with nearby industry and broaden their understanding of their chosen subject. A member of the Berkshire Skills Cluster, a BFI initiative connecting local businesses, education and training providers, Resource Productions hosted a workshop for the Club’s members on SFX Makeup, which revealed the type of vocational training and local job they could potentially pursue in future.

MAKE Southwest, which facilitates a Craft&Making Club in Bovey Tracey, Devon, has also drawn on the expertise of local business and professionals to introduce Club members to a far wider range of disciplines in their Club subject than they may encounter in their formal education. Partnering with Teign Valley Glass allowed the Club to invite its young members to a hot-glass demonstration and involve them in a workshop in which they had the chance to make their own utility glassware.

“Collaboration and partnership working are critical to the setting up and running of our Saturday Club. If we didn’t have these relationships in place, we couldn’t do what we want to do for young people in our area.” Dr Rhiannon Jones, Associate Professor (Civic Practice), University of Derby

Increasing opportunity for young people The importance of expanding young people’s horizons and introducing them to environments they may not otherwise have encountered cannot be understated, attests Urvi Nandha, a National Saturday Club alumna and master’s student at Manchester School of Architecture. 

Speaking about partnership working at the Tutors’ Conference, she commented:

“I think it’s a really interesting choice to place the participant in certain spaces. One of the big things I experienced growing up was a hesitancy to cross the threshold of museums and galleries. It was a question of whether I should occupy that space and when I was there how should I occupy it? I grew up in an Indian household and we are always pushed towards more academic subjects. Cultural spaces were not part of my or my parents’ experience. When a Saturday Club came into my area, I jumped at the opportunity. I think Saturday Clubs are really good at guiding those young people who’ve never been into a museum into that space and reframing these buildings, which are designed for the public and the enrichment of everyone.”

At the University of West London, which hosts a Society&Change Club, the full Club programme has been designed around a collaboration with external partners to enhance Club members’ knowledge. By partnering with locally based professionals and organisations, including MindFood, Kew Gardens, Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery, the Felix Project and Southall Community Alliance, the Club has run sessions looking at the interplay between food, health and society. These sessions have included contributions from locally based experts, such as mental health charity workers, a professor of biomedicine and chefs.

The practical activities enabled by this partnering afforded Club members the chance to enter new spaces, such as a professional kitchen and community garden, and engage in activities that were both instructive and inspiring. As well as providing a wider context for their subject, experiencing a range of environments, professional individuals and learning exercises also served to strengthen Club members’ social and collaborative skills.

“You felt pride at the micro level, then you saw what had been happening at the national level – all the work, the different styles, the different approaches of Club members. As I’ve started working myself, I’ve realised what networking and connections made all this possible.” Urvi Nandha, National Saturday Club alumna

In 2023–24

Our research shows that this year:

The national network of Saturday Clubs engaged with an additional 75 partner organisations and institutions within their local communities to enhance their Saturday Club programmes 13,440 outreach contacts were made by our national Outreach Team to support Club member recruitment 670+ schools across the country had young people participating in the programme.

“The key is to figure out how we can continue to work together to ensure there is service provision and networks to support our local communities and young people.” Amanda Spruyt, Head of Learning, Nottingham Contemporary

The wider impacts of local collaboration

The National Saturday Club’s partnership model is designed to have advantages in both local and national contexts, and the impacts of its programmes are intended to ensure equity of access to extracurricular education in diverse locations across the UK. Considering her institution’s role as a Club partner in the Nottingham area, Amanda Spruyt, Head of Learning at Nottingham Contemporary, outlined her view of the importance of collaborative working in her locale and in a wider sense.

A panellist taking part in the Tutors’ Conference partnership discussion, she said:

“Thinking about the partnerships we’ve been discussing and their positive impact on community and young people’s services, there’s obviously a huge amount of goodwill and people wanting to work together. In the face of challenging times, the key is to figure out how we can continue to work together to ensure there is service provision and networks to support our local communities and young people.”

Rhiannon Jones also highlighted the broader impacts of her Club’s partnership working in Derby:

“All our Saturday Club activities take place at our partner locations across the city, so young people have an authentic engagement with these organisations. For example, last year Club members were able to be at Pride Park Stadium [home of Derby County Football Club], or in a local gallery, theatre or hip-hop school. This way of working was designed to create different types of environmental experiences for young people before they encountered the content delivered by Club tutors. For tutors, we often drew on the expertise of our partners for Club sessions. The young people responded to this in a really positive way.”

Shaping future pathways

The positive outcomes of the various collaborative approaches taken by Saturday Clubs countrywide is confirmed on a regular basis in the Club’s annual evaluation. Year on year, there is evidence that joining a Saturday Club in their area elevates a young person’s aspirations and their awareness of their further education and career options. For Club alumna Urvi Nandha, the influence of her Saturday Club experience in this respect was profound. 

At the Tutors’ Conference she shared:

“Since joining an Art&Design Club and going on to study at Nottingham Trent University and Manchester School of Architecture, I’ve been working in industry. Recently I was sitting at my desk and I called my parents to say how much I loved my work. When I thought about how I got here, one of the key dominoes that fell into place was joining a Saturday Club. I remember vividly some of the studios we visited and workshops that we did as part of our Club. It wasn’t just about the space we were in or the Masterclass that was being delivered, it was about interacting with the artist or designer and watching the way they moved and talked, and collaborated with people.

“The National Saturday Club Graduation Ceremonies and Summer Show magnified this experience. We’d spent a year working towards an output and then we saw this output displayed in an exhibition. You felt pride at the micro level, then you saw what had been happening at the national level – all the work, the different styles, the different approaches of Club members. As I’ve started working myself, I’ve realised what networking and connections made all this possible.”

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