A major symposium focussing on the challenges posed by the 2022 National Plan for Music Education (NPME) in England will be held at the end of the forthcoming Music Access Awareness Week.

The annual charity campaign is hosted by the HarrisonParrott Foundation.

It designed to engage with individuals and organisations involved across the UK music education sector to identify barriers to music access and help solve them.

Reflect and respond

On Friday 4th November the Foundation will partner with Tri-borough Music Hub to host a symposium to reflect and respond to the challenges posed by the 2022 National Plan for Music Education (NPME).

It hopes to assess how the music industry can be actively engaged and how the Plan may impact access to music in Primary and Secondary schools.

The half day event will be held at St Paul's Church, Hammersmith, London showcasing inspirational projects and ideas from across the music industry and music education sectors, sparking debate and providing networking opportunities.

Mission

Music Access Awareness Week runs from 31st October to 4th November, with Jasper Parrott, co-founder of HarrisonParrott telling 4BR: "Our mission is to improve access to quality music education for young people.

Amidst dispiriting recent reports that Music GCSE student numbers have plummeted to the lowest this century, the event will bring together people to collaboratively problem-solve and discuss how new partnerships can be formed to breakdown access barriers to music instruction and enhance the quality of current provision."

It hopes to assess how the music industry can be actively engaged and how the Plan may impact access to music in Primary and Secondary schoolsHarrisonParrott Foundation.

Broaden horizons

Events and content to be released throughout Music Access Awareness Week in the lead up to the symposium will include a podcast on how the music industry needs to get more involved in music education to broaden music career horizons; a blog article from a musician, infographics visualising pathways in the music career landscape and its relationship to funding; and a scientific white paper to be published on 'Barriers to and Drivers of Adolescent Arts Engagement'.