The Secretary of State, Gavin Williamson has written to colleges this week asking them to engage with the Government’s £1.6 billion Stronger Towns Fund in their area.

The newly appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, @RishiSunak must use the long-awaited budget to make colleges the catalyst for change in the country’s #LeftBehind towns. Today, as the cabinet #reshuffle announced a new Chancellor, the Association of Colleges is demanding a fresh approach to education to reach forgotten communities and people.

Transitioning to Level 3 #TLevelsT levels are exciting new Level 3 study programmes for 16 to 18-year-olds. 25 T Levels in sectors as varied as accountancy to media, broadcast and production and human resources to healthcare science will be introduced over four years.

#NAW2020 Being an apprentice at AoC Working as an apprentice at the organisation that represents colleges to deliver these amazing opportunities for students up and down the country has and continues to be a great experience. I work for the Association of Colleges and during National Apprenticeship Week I thought it was only right that I write a little bit about how apprenticeships have changed my idea of further education. A path that has allowed me to gain real life on-the-job experience in an industry that I thought would take a university degree to get into.

As our Chief Executive David Hughes said in his closing speech, we may not have had any politicians or civil servants making announcements at AoC conference this year, but our students were more visible and audible than ever before and this is a very welcome development.