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Our campaigns

Through our campaigns, policy groups, consultations, events and direct lobbying, we have an excellent track record of influencing policy makers, and building the reputation of colleges.

Our key campaigns include our annual Colleges Week, Adult Learning Pays and ad hoc campaigns to influence policy.

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The mission of our Adult Learning Pays campaign is to place adults at the heart of policy, ignite national conversations, and drive momentum for lifelong learning.

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Each year we host a week of celebration to showcase the best of colleges across the country, raise the profile of further education and engage more learners.

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Letter to the Prime Minister - April 2026

We are asking every college principal to sign a joint letter to the Prime Minister that asks him to act on the commitment he made last autumn to make further education a defining feature of his government.

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Past 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.

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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’.  

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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 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.

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Contact us

Email: public_affairs@aoc.co.uk