South Thames Colleges Group joins bold new partnership to back skills, jobs, innovation and investment across South London 

South Thames Colleges Group (STCG) is proud and excited to be part of a brand-new partnership of South London’s leading universities and further education colleges to strengthen collaboration and boost opportunities for people and businesses across the sub-region. 

Uniting under the banner of the South London Colleges and Universities Partnership, and underpinned by a Memorandum of Understanding, the agreement brings together 10 institutions in a coordinated partnership focused on skills, innovation and growth. 

By aligning research, skills provision and employer engagement, the partners aim to help businesses find the expertise they need and help residents move more easily from education into high-quality jobs. 

The partnership will build on the excellent collaborative work already taking place across the sub-region between colleges, universities, industry, and wider partners and will work closely with the South London Partnership – the cross-party collaboration of the London Boroughs of Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames and Sutton – to deliver the ambitions set out in BIG Ambition: South London Growth, a blueprint for accelerating South London’s economy, attracting investment, and supporting more people into well-paid, secure jobs. 

South London is a £38 billion economy – home to 1.2 million residents, 55,000 businesses and 550,000 jobs – and the partnership is designed to match that scale of opportunity. 

Priority sectors include health and life sciences, digital and creative industries, the visitor economy and green technologies – areas where the sub-region already has major strengths. From life sciences research linked to NHS and academic centres, to dynamic creative clusters and fast-growing low-carbon businesses, the partnership aims to connect these assets more effectively. 

The partnership is also ground-breaking due to its focus on promoting collaboration between Further and Higher Education. By combining the partner Colleges’ strengths in technical and community-focused learning with the partner Universities’ expertise in advanced study and research, the partnership will widen participation, create opportunity, better meet local skills needs, lever investment, and support local employers to innovate and grow. By working together, the Colleges and Universities will ensure a more coherent system that delivers better opportunities for learners, better outcomes for businesses, and stronger and more sustainable outcomes and impact for South London. 

In a joint statement, the Vice Chancellors, College Principals and Chief Executives of the ten institutions said: 

“Our Universities and Colleges are engines of innovation, growth, and learning, creating opportunity right across the region, and both enriching and being enriched by the economic, social and cultural life of South London’s diverse communities.” 

“Each institution brings its own strengths, and together our global, national and regional networks give us the power to create real impact. By working as one, right alongside our partner South London Boroughs, we can amplify that impact for everyone who lives, works, studies and is vested in South London.” 

Peter Mayhew-Smith CBE, CEO and Group Principal of STCG stated: “At South Thames Colleges Group, we are delighted to be part of something much bigger, a new collaborative approach to planning and delivering training and development for South London. It’s often tough to bring partnerships together like this, but the common purpose, strength of shared mission and commitment to shared growth and delivery is a fantastic opportunity for us all to help make South London even more successful.” 

A formal signing ceremony will take place later this year, marking the launch of the partnership and underlining a shared commitment to ensure South London’s tertiary education sector drives skills, opportunity and innovation across the capital’s south.