Building social capital through local connection: Evaluating the EduVenture Regional Post-school Pathways Project

Despite decades of policy initiatives, people in regional and remote areas of Australia continue to be underrepresented in further and higher education. There is a wealth of literature exposing the structural factors that impact upon school students’ ability to realise aspirations for these pathways. There is also a growing literature base evaluating programs and projects that support students to overcome such participation barriers. The EduVenture project is one such project being delivered in the Mid Coast Region of New South Wales, Australia. It aims to address barriers faced by regional high school students aspiring for post school options by building engagement between local partners to deliver hands-on experiences such as career workshops, industry collaboration and campus tours. It aimed to enhance students’ positivity for the future and awareness of opportunities that exist for life after high school. This paper explores the impacts of the project through a social capital lens by analysing annual survey responses from high school students who participated in the initiative from 2023 to 2025. This study reveals how EduVenture appears to have expanded students’ social capital by increasing their understanding of post-school pathways, legitimising university as a possible option, and broadening the range of futures they can imagine.