North West

Dear all,

I hope you’ve had a positive start to 2026; it's certainly felt like a whirlwind with so much going on across the region and beyond. There’s plenty keeping us busy at AoC with qualification reform, the new Ofsted framework, the next wave of TECs, the NEET review, apprenticeship reforms, devolution developments, 2026/27 funding announcements and much more due in just the first few months of the year. 

I enjoyed visiting over a dozen colleges in January for catch ups and strategy sessions with senior leaders and governors. I visited Coleg Cambria for the College Alliance International Conference, where we heard from a range of experts, officials and system leaders across different nations, with a focus on tackling inequalities and getting people into employment. Coleg Cambria were phenomenal hosts, so huge thanks to them and to their students, who were at the heart of delivering the event.

We know there are lots of Ofsted inspections taking place across the region. A reminder that AoC are available to support you before, during and after inspection and can share information and insights. Please let me know if this is of interest and I’ll link you with AoC’s national lead for Ofsted.

Networks

We’ve had a great start to the year across our regional networks, thanks to all involved, including Oldham College for hosting our North West Curriculum & Quality Network on 26 January. We had an insightful session at the Northern Chairs' Forum with Polly Harrow, FE student support champion on the Relationship & Sex Education toolkit for the post-16 sector. Thank you to Trafford & Stockport College Group for hosting our principals’ networking dinner on 4 February, to Reaseheath College for supplying produce for the meal and to everyone who attended. It was a lovely evening. Information on upcoming regional events can be found here.

Colleges Week 2026: Skills for All

Colleges Week is only a month away (2 to 6 March 2026). This is always a highlight of the year where we get to shout about the incredible impact our colleges have on individuals from all walks of life, as anchor institutions at the heart of every community and on businesses of all shapes and sizes across every sector. We are keen to get lots of mayors, MPs and other regional decisionmakers involved. If you are planning anything during the week, please let us know via AoC.North@aoc.co.uk.

Kind regards,
Rebecca Durber
Area Director (North West) and Senior Policy Lead (Devolution)

Happy New Year! We hope you had a lovely break over Christmas and it’s been a good start to 2026 for our North West colleges.

It was, as always, a very busy start to the academic year, from results day and enrolment to plenty of policy announcements impacting the sector. The 2025 AoC conference was our biggest yet. It was great to see over 140 delegates from the North West, nine North West-led breakout sessions and Sir Martyn Oliver be introduced by Stockport College student Hajira.

We launched the Adult Learning Pays campaign, which aims to ensure that the importance of adult education and the benefits it brings are recognised.
It will be great to discuss this further: we hope to involve lots of North West colleges, stakeholders and politicians in the campaign.

Last term, we hosted 12 North West regional networks with 190 attendees, with lots of brilliant discussion and debate, including input from senior officials, DfE, Ofsted and Irwin Mitchell. We have also welcomed new network chairs and vice-chairs, including Alan Brown at Riverside College Anne-Marie Francis at Wigan & Leigh College for the NW Curriculum and Quality Network, Katie Goodwin from Trafford & Stockport College Group for the Northern SEND Forum and Jane Nickisson from Reaseheath College for the Northern HE Forum. Information on this term’s regional events can be found here.

Congratulations to North West colleagues who were awarded for services to further education in the 2026 King’s New Years Honours, including Lisa O’Loughlin CBE, Anna Dawe OBE, Julia Heap OBE and Rachael Hennigan OBE. We are incredibly proud to see your hard work and dedication recognised.

We are pleased to see so many North West finalists in this year’s Beacon Awards, including Oldham College, City of Liverpool College, Blackburn College, Coleg Cambria and Hugh Baird College. We have everything crossed for wins in March! It was brilliant to see Ella Toone, Wigan & Leigh College alumni inducted into the FE Hall of Fame. Congratulations also to Warrington & Vale Royal College who were recently awarded Employer of the Year: Platinum at the Investors in People awards. If you have anything you’d like us to share, please email AoC.North@aoc.co.uk.

Colleges Week 2026

Colleges Week is coming up soon, Monday 2 to Friday 6 March 2026. Information and resources are available here. Please let us know if you have any activities planned so we can promote and get involved.

Best wishes,
Rebecca Durber
Area Director (NW) and Senior Policy Lead (Devolution)