Colleges Week 2024
INFLUENCING | ENGAGING | CELEBRATING
With a general election looming, 2024 is set to be a defining year for the country and for the further education sector.
As a result, Colleges Week is now taking place between Monday 26th February to Friday 1st March.
Jessica Chesters, Childcare“All of the staff have been amazing to me over the years. After failing my GCSE English in school, I was given extra lessons at college, which enabled me to pass the exam.”
“I have also had regular meetings with my career coach, who has been fantastic in helping me explore my options and provided some really useful information and advice.”
The focus on this Colleges Week will be political influencing in both the short and long term. We want to shape the conversations around the spring budget due on 6th March, the mayoral elections in May and the general election expected in autumn.
Whoever the next government is, we want to make sure they are focussed on ensuring colleges play an even bigger role in an inclusive, tolerant, welcoming, strong society and a growing and productive economy.
We want to focus on actions which see colleges actively engaging with key stakeholders: student-led hustings for candidates in general and mayoral elections, voter registration drives, engaging politicians, pressing the case for investment and so on.
Colleges Week will continue to be a week in which we shout about the incredible work our College does and celebrating our successes.
The five key actions for this week are:
1. Engage with our local MPs and politicians by writing to them and inviting them to hustings events. We will also be encouraging our local MP(s) to take part in a debate on Colleges Week in parliament on Thursday 29th February. A great chance for our MP to highlight all the great work we do.
2. Spark you – our students’ – interest in your College and as student voice is at the heart of every college, we are encouraging students to register to vote. Although students need to be 18 to vote in elections in England, they can register when they turn 16.
3. Promote our week to local media as local media coverage reaches audiences larger than the college audience.
4. Make a splash on social media as the audience we can all reach on social media is vast: as well as students, parents and employers, we can also catch the eye of politicians and policy makers. #LoveOurColleges
5. We will reach out to our local organisations and showcase the strong relationships our College has with local employers and that organisations can help amplify the wider messages we are sharing during Colleges Week.
Jason Austin, CEO and Principal for the RNN Group“It is incredibly rewarding to see the life changing impact that our colleges have on the thousands of students, and apprentices every year. During the Love Our Colleges Week we are celebrating our students, our staff and the skills that our students have and showcase, as well as the skills they learn from our staff.”
“Our excellent relationship with employers and other external partners also play a big part in the skills our students learn and the development of an innovative curriculum to ensure our learners are industry ready.”