Yorkshire and the Humber

Dear colleagues,

Welcome to this month’s regional update, where we’re delighted to share and celebrate some of the outstanding achievements, innovation and leadership across our Yorkshire and the Humber colleges.

Recognising excellence across our colleges
We’re pleased to highlight several outstanding achievements from across the region this month:
Hull College is celebrating national recognition after receiving the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Education for its pioneering ESOL programme. Representatives attended an investiture at St James’s Palace, where the King and Queen presented the award. Their initiative, Silent Voices, Vivid Stories offers a transformative, innovative model supporting refugee, asylum‑seeking and migrant learners.

The Sheffield College has been awarded Investors in Diversity Gold UK – Leaders in Diversity, recognising their strong commitment to inclusion and continued progress in embedding equitable practice across the organisation.

Heart of Yorkshire has been selected as one of only three national Digital Insight Hubs, reflecting their evidence led approach to digital transformation. The college is hosting a Digital Insight Day on 28 April, offering visiting colleges a hands‑on look at its digital approaches and practical tools in action.

Kirklees College had a busy month welcoming both the MP for Colne Valley, and the Mayor of West Yorkshire to its Engineering and Process Manufacturing centres. The college was also named a National Finalist in the Apprenticeship and Training Awards at the House of Lords, recognising its strong contribution to skills and training across the region.

Congratulations to Bradford College and Sheffield College, their success at the recent Apprenticeship and Training Awards. Bradford College was named Apprenticeship Provider of the Year, and Sheffield College received the award for Best New Apprenticeship Programme.

And last but not least we celebrated the AoC Beacon Awards 2025-26 on Tuesday. Congratulations to Barnsley College for being a finalist in the City & Guilds Award for College Engagement with Employers.

Colleges Week 2026
As the ninth annual Colleges Week draws to a close, we want to extend our thanks to everyone who took part and continued to show their support, not only for AoC, but for the wider sector and the vital role colleges play. We hope you enjoyed the daily summaries which included several ‘college spotlights’ from the region.

Last chance to book
Be part of the AoC EDI Conference (11–12 March) and help shape how colleges embed inclusion, tackle inequality and strengthen their role as community anchor institutions.

With Colleges’ National Green Week (20–24 April) approaching, we’re looking to spotlight the sustainability activity taking place across the region. Details on how to get involved are available on our website. We’re also collecting information on Green Careers Fairs scheduled for this academic year. If your college is planning one, or thinking about hosting it during Green Week, we’d be pleased to hear from you.

Networks
Details for our Yorkshire and the Humber Networks can be found on the AoC page.

It has been a great start to 2026 with lots happening across Yorkshire and the Humber. If there is something happening at your college that you would like us to highlight in future regional updates, please contact us.

The dedicated Yorkshire and Humber Youth Social Action and Enrichment Programme (Phase Three) continues to positively impact students and engage members with over 10 Yorkshire colleges directly involved.

Members can get involved through:

• Yorkshire and Humber Enrichment Network for staff managing/delivering enrichment activities, Thursday 26 February 10:00-11:30. Please sign up here.
• Tailored support on enrichment development by the Regional Enrichment Coordinator. You can access the support request form here.
• Youth social action webinar on the benefits of collaborating with local and national organisations, Thursday 12 March 10-11am. You can sign up here.
• Contact projects@aoc.co.uk for more info.

Colleges Week 2026: Skills for all, taking place from 2 to 6 March, is approaching quickly, and we are keen to highlight activities happening across Yorkshire and the Humber. A wide range of resources is available to support planning, and the AoC team is very happy to attend or support events. If you are running activities during the week, please let us know. We would be delighted to help shine a spotlight on your work and impact in the region.

Thank you to Ken Merry and colleagues at York College for hosting the recent Yorkshire and Humber Principals/CEO Networking Dinner. David Hughes joined leaders to share AoC and sector updates, and York College students provided exceptional food and service at the Cookery, the college’s award‑winning training restaurant. A big thank you to everyone involved.

Congratulations to Bradford College’s Junction Mills development, which has received a Sustainability Award for delivering 473 tonnes of carbon savings, equivalent to the annual emissions of 175 UK homes. This is a fantastic achievement for the region and the wider sector.

Members can now upload press releases directly to the new College News page using a quick and simple online form. Every submission will also receive a corresponding AoC X (Twitter) post, helping boost visibility and celebrate the fantastic work taking place across the region. Please do make use of this feature, we want to help showcase your successes.

Networks for 2026 are in full flow; members can find details for Yorkshire and the Humber on the AoC page. Thanks to Polly Harrow (Kirklees College) for her presentation at the Jan-26 Northern Chairs network on Misogyny and Sexual Violence and the Relationship Sex Education Toolkit for the Post-16 sector available on the AoC site.

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

We are delighted that Paul Smith is now in post as AoC Area Director for Yorkshire & the Humber. Paul is based in East Yorkshire and joins with extensive experience, having worked in the sector for 15+ years, most recently as head of quality, standards and statuses at the Education & Training Foundation. Paul looks forward to meeting you soon.

It’s been a 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 nearly 100 delegates from the region and seven Yorkshire and Humber-led breakout sessions. At conference, we launched the Adult Learning Pays campaign, which aims to ensure the importance of adult education and the benefits it brings are recognised.

Last term, we hosted 14 regional networks with 111 attendees, with excellent discussion and debate and input from DfE, Ofsted and Irwin Mitchell. We are pleased to welcome Ken Merry from York College as the new Y&H representative on the AoC board, Rob Lawson from Hull College as the new Y&H representative on the National Chairs’ Council, Gareth Dixon from Craven College as vice-chair of the Finance Directors’ Network and Steven Spence from The Sheffield College and Victoria Lindberg from York College as co-chairs of the Y&H Curriculum and Quality Network. Forthcoming regional events can be found here.

Congratulations to colleagues who were awarded for services to further education in the 2026 New Years Honours, including Debra Gray CBE, Colin Booth CBE and Deborah Millar OBE. We are incredibly proud to see your hard work and dedication recognised.

Congratulations to Hull College, who were recently awarded the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Higher and Further Education. Congratulations to Y&H commended and finalist colleges in this year’s Beacon Awards, including Barnsley College and Hull College. We have everything crossed for wins in March! It was brilliant to see two Y&H Student of the Year finalists: Harry Clayton for Apprentice of the Year and Presley Beckham for HE Student the Year, both from Barnsley College. If you have anything you’d like us to share, email AoC.North@aoc.co.uk.

Colleges Week is coming up soon: Monday 2 to Friday 9 March 2026. You can find more information 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)