West Midlands

Dear colleagues,

It’s another busy time of the year for colleges! This week, we celebrateNational Apprenticeship Week. The official toolkit and resources can be found here. Following this, we dive straight into Colleges Week, which is running from 2 to 6 March. This year, the theme is Skills for All. We have suggested a different focus for each day and you can find all the necessary resources to help your teams develop activities at Colleges Week 2026: Skills for all. The week is a great opportunity to spotlight the impact of our sector locally, regionally and nationally – and a particularly good opportunity to engage your MPs, employers and local community. Please do get in touch with the regional team to let us know what you have planned or how we can help you to celebrate! Don’t forget to share your good news stories throughout the week on social media and let us know directly by contacting Chloe.Buchanan@aoc.co.uk.

This month I have been engaged with our Mental Health Beacon Award Assessor visits. Congratulations again to all Beacon Award commended colleges and good luck to all finalists across every category – I look forward to celebrating with you in March at our Spring Awards event!

Earlier in January, I also attended the AoC Equity Exchange hosted at Leicester College. Throughout the morning colleges shared experiences around the sector’s work as inclusive organisations, tackling social cohesion positively and recognising our role as anchor institutions and safe spaces for our communities. It was truly inspiring!

I have also been busy over the last few weeks with the new term’s networks and forums, and squeezing in a few early college visits for our keep-in-touch meetings.

It is with great pleasure though, that I can introduce Phoebe Dawson to the region. As your new Area Director, we will be supporting Phoebe to fill her diary with activities and visits to enable her to get to know you and the region over the coming weeks. I’m sure you will all join me in welcoming Phoebe to the West Midlands!

If there is anything else I or the regional team can support you with, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Our contact details are available on the AoC website.

Kind regards,
Jen Hope
Area Director (East Midlands & West Midlands) and Senior Policy Lead (Mental Health)

College good news
Recognising the region’s great partnerships and practice:

Congratulations to Telford College for being shortlisted for the Apprenticeship and Training Awards.

It was fantastic to see the Rt. Hon Baroness Jacqui Smith addressing guests at the official opening of South Staffordshire College’s new Tamworth College.

We are excited to hear about South and City College Birmingham’s partnership with Birmingham City Football Club Foundation, launching a new Football Coaching and Performance Programme.

Celebrating your awards
Congratulations to:

South Staffordshire College (two awards), BMet College, Solihull College & University Centre, South & City College Birmingham, Heart of Worcestershire College, Kidderminster College (NCG), Becky Howard (Newcastle & Stafford College Group) for their achievements at FE First Awards 2026, as part of the College Marketing Network.

Coventry College Basketball Education Programme for winning the AoC Sport regional title for the first time in its history.

Please keep sharing your successes and stories with us!

Calls for actions

The deadline for TEC applications Wave 2 is Monday 16 February 2026.

High Needs Provision Capital Allocation 2026-27 has now been announced. If you have a specific project in mind, it is an opportune time for colleges to approach their local authority.

Regional Network dates

Joint Midlands Governance Professionals’ Network
Wednesday 11 February 2026
10am – 1pm at Leicester College

Midlands and East SEND Forum
Wednesday 28 January 2026
10.30am – 12pm (online)

Midlands and East Apprenticeship Forum
Tuesday 10 February 2026
10 – 11.30am (online)

Midlands and East College HE Forum
Tuesday 10 February 2026
1.30 – 3pm (online)

Joint Midlands Chairs’ Network
Wednesday 11 March 2026
1.30 – 2.30pm (online)

Joint Midlands Finance Directors’ Network
Thursday 12 March 2026
10am – 1pm at Nottingham College

Joint Midlands Curriculum and Quality Network
Tuesday 17 March 2026
10am – 1pm (venue TBC)

West Midlands HR Professionals’ Network
Wednesday 18 March 2026
10 – 11am (online)

West Midlands Principals and CEOs’ Network
Thursday 19 March 2026
10 – 11am (online)

Happy New Year! I hope your break over the festive period was wonderful and restorative. Thank you to all colleges for your warm Christmas greetings and kind messages of thanks and support. We very much appreciated them and wish you all the very best for 2026. We definitely have another busy year lined up for us!

Congratulations to our West Midlands AoC Beacon Award finalists for 2025/26:

• Derwen College, finalist in the AoC Award for Mental Health and Wellbeing
• North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College, finalist in the City and Guilds Award for College Engagement with Employers

Assessor visits are taking place this month, with winners being announced on the 3 March 2026 at the House of Commons. We wish you the very best of luck!

And the congratulations don’t stop here! I was really pleased to see students Samiha Kalam from Sandwell College win the AoC Young Student of the Year Award, and Kea Masters from Halesowen College win the AQA Inspiring Project Award at the AoC Annual Conference in Birmingham.

Congratulations also to Santina Bunting, proud alumni of Solihull College and University Centre who was inducted into our FE Hall of Fame last year.

Finally, congratulations to North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College, who were just one of four FE colleges to be named as winners of the 2025 Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Higher and Further Education. The college was recognised for its leadership of the MIRA Technology Institute (MTI), which showcases how collaborative working between further and higher education institutions and industry can meet skills demands.

These awards are all a fantastic recognition of the impactful contributions colleges and their students make in their field and communities – well done to our West Midlands Colleges!

Continuing with the theme of celebrating, Colleges Week 2026 will take place from Monday 2 March to Friday 6 March 2026. Our theme this year is Skills For All and we are already looking forward to hearing what exciting activities you have planned for the week. Further information and resources can be found here and if there is anything we can do to support you with this celebratory week, please do get in touch.

We are keen to use these regional monthly updates to celebrate success in the region, therefore if you have anything you’d like us to share in future editions, please email pal.sohi@aoc.co.uk. You can also now upload your own press releases to the College News section of our website to share with the entire sector.

Network meetings
As always, we have another round of regional events planned for this term that I look forward to seeing you at:

Joint Midlands Chairs’ Network
Wednesday 14 January 2026
1.30 – 2.30pm (online)

Joint Midlands HR Professionals’ Network
Wednesday 21 January 2026
10 – 11.30am (online)

West Midlands Principals and CEOs’ Network
Thursday 22 January 2026
10 – 11am (online)

Joint Midlands Governance Professionals’ Network
Wednesday 11 February 2026
10 – 1pm at Leicester College

Midlands and East SEND Forum
Wednesday 28 January 2026
10.30 – 12pm (online)

Midlands and East Apprenticeship Forum
Tuesday 10 February 2026
10 – 11.30am (online)

Midlands and East College HE Forum
Tuesday 10 February 2026
1.30 – 3pm (online)

Joint Midlands Chairs’ Network
Wednesday 11 March 2026
1.30 – 2.30pm (online)

Joint Midlands Finance Directors’ Network
Thursday 12 March 2026
10am – 1pm at Nottingham College

Joint Midlands Curriculum and Quality Network
Tuesday 17 March 2026
10am – 1pm (venue TBC)

West Midlands HR Professionals’ Network
Wednesday 18 March 2026
10 – 11am (online)

West Midlands Principals and CEOs’ Network
Thursday 19 March 2026
10 – 11am (online)

If there is anything else I or the regional team can support you with, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Our contact details are available on the AoC website.

Welcome back and once again, happy new year!
Kind regards,

Jen Hope
Area Director (East Midlands & West Midlands) and Senior Policy Lead (Mental Health)