Still crazy about our Colleges after an unprecedented year!

: Created: 12 October 2020

Call us old romantics if you like - we admit it - and what’s more - we are proud to say we ‘LOVE OUR COLLEGES’.

Next week is Colleges Week 2020 (Monday 19 to Friday 23 October) and we are taking part in the Association of Colleges’ (AoC) national celebration of the further education sector. It will showcase the great work colleges are involved with on a daily basis by playing a major role in the UK's economic rebuild, growing and supporting individual sectors, being at the centre of innovation and designing the future, supporting people and their communities and being a major player in the COVID-19 response.

We want to add our voice and shout very loudly about all the brilliant things that colleges do to build communities, boost business and support individuals. This year, more than ever, colleges are, and will continue to be amongst the most important bodies helping to get the country working again. They will help adults who have lost their jobs to retrain and acquire the skills needed by new and existing employers and to compete for new opportunities. They will also help young people leaving school and in need of career advice, skills, knowledge, direction and work experience, and work with employers to shape our curriculums and supply them with skilled personnel equipped to perform at all levels.

This year, COVID-19 has thrown a giant spanner into the works of every sector - particularly in the hospitality, catering, travel and tourism, events and entertainment management, sports and leisure industries. All of these curriculum areas are offered by London South East Colleges and it is hugely important for us to support the sectors and support them to remain afloat. We also need to keep our students upbeat and on-track to fill the roles available once we return to normal. This means we must be ready to diversify our curriculum and work with employers to meet the needs of new and emerging sectors.

Group Principal and CEO for London South East Colleges, Dr Sam Parrett OBE has pledged her support, and that of the College’s seven campuses to the AoC’s campaign for better investment.

She says: "COVID-19 has set us a challenge that we are definitely ready for but we can’t do it alone. Further education needs the extra help and assistance in way of funding. Though the government is finally responding to our calls, this doesn’t mean we can just sit back and relax. We need to send a constant reminder of the central role that the sector plays. It requires us to maintain a constant drumbeat of messaging sent to the very heart of government holding them to account.

“Over the past six months I have been in awe of this College’s response to the pandemic. It has taken many forms from members of staff producing face masks and visors for the NHS in their own homes, others setting up or joining volunteer groups aimed at supporting people locked down in isolation for months at a time, and even our Bromley Campus car park being offered as an ambulance station. Students too have been playing their part by taking jobs as essential workers in supermarkets or joining the St John Ambulance volunteers to assist at the frontline - one of our media students even dispatched a set of lifesaving messages to his local community (Unseen Enemy) by making an absolutely brilliant short film featuring his actor father. These are just a few of the things that make me so proud to be a part of this great College.

"Central to everything we achieved during the five-month lockdown period was our flagship FE Foodbank Friday initiative, which we have since relaunched with a festive twist. This was set up to collect food and cash donations, initially from staff members, employer partners and other stakeholders but later expanded in a big way to include seventeen other colleges from around the UK. Each College then set up their own virtual giving pages to support their own local communities during the COVID crisis.

"Supporting this year’s Love Our Colleges campaign is something we simply have to do and I speak for all of our staff when I pledge our promise to give it our 100% backing."

Read more stories about London South East Colleges and the work it does to support its community, local and regional business and industries as well as how it has responded to the COVID-19 crisis below…

Supporting Business:

COVID-19 Response