Association of Colleges

AoC represents members on over 100 Government and agency policy groups and manages a very wide variety of its own policy and advisory committees at both national and regional level, as well as its own Board committees. A selection of committees and policy and advisory groups are listed below.

AoC policy and activity groups

College Strategic Group
AoC has created a College Strategic ‘task and finish’ Group to produce a preliminary report, issued in time for the AoC Annual Conference, setting out strategic policy priorities for the sector.  Principals who sit on the LSC’s Agenda for Change Advisory Group and Ministerial Standing Group on FE, plus AoC’s Legislation Group, were invited to participate in the first meeting on 5 October 2007. The Group is a first step to a major enhancement of member engagement into proactive policy formation, created to distill the various perspectives of Principals around the country into an agreed set of ideas about the future.

Self-Regulation
AoC has taken a lead role in the development of self-regulation for the sector and is working with member colleges and key stakeholders to formulate a proposition that will go before Government. Details of a self-regulation coalition were announced at the AoC Annual Conference in November. AoC hosts the self-regulation group at its Stedham Place offices. It is expected that the self-regulation coalition will embrace the schema of the Reputation Group as set out in the Strategic Review report and that a specific College Reputation Group will feed into the broader further education reputation agenda while running its own specific campaigns. In the shorter term AoC and member colleges are now working alongside Government, the Learning and Skills Council and other key partners on the Reputation Steering Group to promote further education through a number of specific activities. Additional reputation-building work includes the launch of the Certificate for Leadership for Reputation in partnership with the Chartered Institute for Public Relations and Centre for Excellence in Leadership.
For more information click at FE Self Regulation Implementation Group
 
AoC Board committees

Audit Committee
The Audit Committee advises the Corporation on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control system including controls for securing economy, efficiency and effectiveness.

Finance Committee
The Finance Committee duties include advising the Board on all financial matters relating to the Association; advising the Board on the Association’s financial procedures and reporting arrangements; recommending appropriate financial regulations to the Board; considering subscription matters in relation to the budget; recommending subscription rates to the Board and considering the annual budget in detail and recommending it to the Board for approval.

Employment Committee
The Employment Committee’s terms of reference include developing the employment policies (including health and safety) of the Association of Colleges to recommend to the sector; negotiating pay and terms of conditions and making appropriate recommendations to the FE sector and drafting as appropriate, position or policy papers on employment issues.

Remuneration Committee
The remuneration committee’s terms of reference include making recommendations to the Board on salary changes, PRP payments, and changes in conditions for the Chief Executive; receiving from the Chief Executive recommendations to set the pay and conditions for all AoC staff and agreeing within the budget parameters agreed by the Finance Committee salary increases and changes in conditions for senior staff.