- About us
- About colleges
-
Corporate services
- Corporate services
- Mental health and wellbeing
- Data Protection/GDPR
-
Employment Services - college workforce
- Employment Services - college workforce
- Employment: How we support members
- Introduction & Employment Helpline
- Absence & Sickness Management
- Contracts and T&Cs
- Disciplinary, Capability & Grievance
- Employment Briefings Library
- Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
- General Employee Relations & HR Issues
- Holiday/annual leave related
- Industrial Relations
- ONS reclassification related guidance
- Pay & Pensions
- Recruitment
- Redundancy, Restructuring & TUPE
- Safeguarding/Prevent
- Workforce Benchmarking, Surveys & Research
- Governance
-
Projects
- Projects
- Get Involved!
- Projects: How we support members
- Resources
- The 5Rs Approach to GCSE Maths Resits
- Apprenticeship Workforce Development (AWD) Programme
- Creating a Greener London – Sustainable Construction Skills
- Erasmus+ EXPECT Project
- Digital Roles Across Non-digital Industries
- T Level and T Level Foundation Year Provider Support Programme
- The Valuing Enrichment Project
- Higher and Extended Project Qualifications
- OfS - Higher Education Social Prescribing Project
- Pears Foundation Youth Social Action Programme: Phase 2
- T Level Professional Development (TLPD) Offer
- T Level Curriculum Macro-Sequencing
- Contact the Projects Team
- DfE Multiply Capability Support Programme
- Creative Arts in FE 2024 – developing student voice through creativity
- Resources/Guidance
- Sustainability & Climate Action Hub
- Partnerships
- Honours Nomination
- Brexit
- Recruitment and consultancy
-
Events and training
- Events and training
- Events
- T Level & T Level Foundation Year Events
- Events and training: How we support members
- Network Meetings
- Annual Conference & Exhibition 2023 Resources
- Previous Events & Webinars
- In-House Training
- Senior Leadership Development Programme
- Introducing AoC's Early Career and Experienced Middle Managers Programme
- Sponsorship & Exhibition Opportunities
- Funding and finance
-
Policy
- Policy
- Meet the Policy Team
- Policy: How we support members
- Policy Areas
- Policy Briefings
- Submissions
- Policy Papers & Reports
- AoC Strategy Groups
-
AoC Reference Groups
- AoC Reference Groups
- Adults (inc. ESOL) Reference Group
- Apprenticeship Reference Group
- Technology Reference Group
- HE Reference Group
- 14-16 Reference Group
- Mental Health Reference Group
- 16-18 Reference Group
- SEND Reference Group
- WorldSkills Reference Group
- HR Reference Group
- Sustainability & Climate Change Reference Group
- EDI Reference Group
- Opportunity England
- Research unit
-
News, campaigns and parliament
- News, campaigns and parliament
- General and mayoral election resources
- Comms advice and resources for colleges
- AoC Newsroom
- AoC Blogs
- Work in Parliament
- AoC Campaigns
- Briefings
- Contact the Communications, Media, Marketing and Research Team
- Communications, media, marketing and research: How we support members
-
Equality, diversity and inclusion
- Equality, diversity and inclusion
- Equality, diversity and inclusion blogs
- AoC’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Charter
- Diversity in Leadership
- Black FE Leadership Group and AoC partnership agreement
- AoC's Equity Exchange
- Equality, diversity and inclusion: How we support members
- Equality, diversity and inclusion case studies
- Home
- News, campaigns and parliament
- AoC Newsroom
- CIPR Excellence Award
CIPR Excellence Award
The Association of Colleges is celebrating after its No Free Lunch? campaign scooped the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Excellence Award for a Public Affairs Campaign last night.
The grassroots-led campaign, which ran for just over a year, successfully argued for the Government to extend free meals to disadvantaged 16 to 18-year-olds in colleges – in line with those of the same age studying in school sixth forms The announcement that eligible college students would also receive free meals was made by the Deputy Prime Minister during his conference speech last autumn.
AoC’s Public Affairs officer Piran Dhillon, who led the campaign and collected the award, said: “We were so excited to be shortlisted for this prestigious award and winning is testament to the hard work put in by colleges, students and MPs to resolve this long-standing inequality.”
Martin Doel, AoC Chief Executive, said: “Winning the campaign was a huge victory for the sector because we estimated 100,000 students in colleges across the country were missing out due to this disparity in funding. From September these young people will be able to carry on studying wherever they want without having to make a decision between eating lunch or studying.
“We were successful in securing support from all three political parties and I’d like to add my thanks to everyone who supported us in the campaign.”
The CIPR Excellence Awards are the leading public relations awards, recognising the outstanding achievements of individuals, in-house teams and agencies across all sectors of the profession. AoC received its award from comedienne Jo Caulfield at a ceremony in London.
AoC's campaign was one of 700 international entries. CIPR President, Stephen Waddington MCIPR, said: “The standard of winners and strength of the competition tonight are proof that there has never been such an exciting time to work in public relations. Our reputation as a profession is built by the kinds of campaigns, teams and professionals receiving these accolades. Congratulations to the winners; they should be proud that their award-winning expertise plays a key role, and delivers business benefit, within every area of a modern organisation.”