Current campaigns

Supporting the NHS 75 years and beyond

Find out more about the Higher Development Award and how we will be supporting NHS 75.

On 5 July 2023, the NHS will be marking 75 years of service and celebrating this birthday with their NHS 75 campaign. This is an important day to highlight the role that colleges play in training NHS staff and we have prepared some social media assets and template tweets so that you can show your support.

Supporting the NHS 75 years and beyond

Mind the Skills Gap Campaign

We know how much disappointment and frustration there was following the lack of additional investment for the sector in the autumn statement, and we shared members’ eagerness to channel that energy into action. That’s why we’ve launched the ‘Mind the Skills Gap’ campaign.

This is a series of campaigning activities hosted by the Association of Colleges, Association of Employment & Learning Providers and City & Guilds under the banner of the Future Skills Coalition.

The campaign aims to highlight to parliamentarians, Government and other key decision makers that without further investment in further education we will not be able to fill the skills gaps in key areas of the economy and deliver the labour market the country needs.

Find out more

Love Our Colleges

Love Our Colleges is a chance to celebrate and shout about all the brilliant things that colleges do, day in and day out to build communities, boost businesses, and support individuals. It is also our opportunity to call on government for better investment in colleges, and fair pay for college staff.

Love Our Colleges website

Let Them Learn: FE support for the unemployed

Further education colleges are well placed to support people into good jobs, no matter their starting point. In our new report we are calling on the government to scrap unhelpful universal credit claimant rules that have created an ‘education vs. work’ divide. Current rules prevent people from participating in many learning or training courses if they receive unemployment benefits. This hampers progress on the government's Plan for Jobs recovery strategy, putting investment in the Lifetime Skills Guarantee out of reach to too many people. More joining up of skills and employment programmes are vital to deliver plans to ‘build back better’.  

More information on our Let Them Learn report

The Green College Commitment

With the COP26 summit over and following the publication of the government’s Net Zero Strategy, AoC has published a new report, The Green College Commitment. It sets out the critical role of colleges in achieving net zero and biodiversity ambitions. Colleges in England will do everything possible on their own green journey. However, without more government support and investment, sustainability goals risk being missed.

New research in the report has found that less than 1% of students are currently on a course with broad coverage of climate education. The report warns that reaching net zero emissions by 2050 is likely to fail without making education on climate change and sustainability part of all study courses.

More Information on The Green College Commitment