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College is an important stage of education over in the UK: the two- or three-year period that connects leaving high school and for some of us, entering university, it’s a time in our professional lives where we focus less on developing a holistic understanding of knowledge and beginning to specialise and think about where we want our lives to end up. For many people, it represents the beginning of a lot more freedom and independence in their lives (fancy dyeing your hair blue? Most colleges are cool with it, whereas most secondary schools aren’t); and although they might feel a long way off, some of the most important exams you’ll ever sit if you’re planning on staying in education post-16. These are the ones that get you into apprenticeships and training programmes, as well as training and university – and whilst there’s a lot of pressure, many people find it the stage of their educational career that they look back the most fondly on.
Colleges Week is a chance to celebrate everything that colleges do, and explore the many options that they can offer us when it comes to honing our skills and thinking about the jobs and careers that we can see ourselves in in the future. It’s set up by the Association of Colleges as part of the Love Our Colleges Campaign; a partnership between the Association of Colleges itself and several other bodies such as the National Union of Students, The Association of School and College Leaders, The University and Colleges Union (UCU), the National Education Union (NEU), UNISON, GMB Union and the TUC.
This year has been one of the most important celebrations of college education yet as the country recovers from the pandemic and education slowly but surely gets back on track. It’s also been important because of the debate and discussion that it has sparked surrounding the advent of the Skills & Post-16 Education Bill as it goes through parliament, and the changes that it could effect. A quick scroll through numerous social media platforms reveals a large amount of differing opinions on the Bill itself, and fears that its move to update and replace the BTEC system of qualifications could impact learners from disadvantaged socioeconomic circumstances disproportionately. There is also an ongoing debate as to the Bill’s eventual effects on the 260,000 people who are enrolled on a BTEC course every year in the UK, and whether the proposed replacement – T-Levels- will have a positive or negative effect on learners who need these kinds of qualifications as a way of getting into university. The bill itself was passed with a small majority of 126-116, and will now face its third reading in the House of Lords later today, before progressing into the House of Commons where the process repeats.
The celebration of colleges also included a call for colleges and FE institutions to think about their ecological impact and workshop ways to have a positive impact on their carbon footprint, as well as the More Than a College Video Competition. This is where the Love your Colleges campaign invited students to show off their creativity and technical skills by creating a 30 second video on their interpretation of what a brilliant college looks like, and highlight the diverse work of their college in supporting the campaign, its community, and the students that attend it. You can see all of the stellar entries by checking out the #MoreThanACollegeComp hashtag on Twitter!
Many colleges have also been taking part in the Colleges Week: Town Takeovers campaign: this is where colleges go out into their local community to showcase their creativity in a public setting where it can be enjoyed by everybody: Strode College unleashed their Halloween spirit with everything creepy in a flash mob and SFX workshop; Hopwood Hall College celebrated with free haircuts from their next generation of Hairdressing and Barbering students, and Harrow College architecture students created 3D light sculptures inspired by the works of legendary British cartoonist Heath Robinson.
You can also catch up with the amazing adult learners that colleges week shines a light on y checking out their Festival of Learning Award Winners: these are the inspirational learners who, either returning to education or taking on college for the first time, exemplify everything that college can do and represents. The article run-down of the hard-working winners also contains some facts and figures from the 2019 and 2020 Learning and Work Institute Adult Participation in Learning Surveys about the learners making up the further education community – you can find these studies in more detail at the Learning & Work Institute online.
