Great vibes here at the City & Guilds reception this evening to launch their new report. Featuring a great speech by Richard Parker talking about skills and that helping young people get access to opportunity is a priority, to help change their lives.

Pleased to hear this today. Priority for public investment has to be young people, giving a youth guarantee of good jobs, with real prospects

This morning David Hughes CBE and I met with Shrewsbury MP @JBuckleyLabour to talk about the role & impact of colleges, FE teacher pay, removal of VAT, how we can support and the absolutely fantastic work that @ShrewsColGroup is doing. (excuse the fact I'm not looking at the camera!)

Research commissioned by Association of Colleges (AoC) showed that apprenticeships starts fell by 33% (160k) 2014/15 to 2022/23, with the proportion of starters from the most deprived areas falling from 26% to 20%.

Great to have so many college leaders and representatives joining us at #LabourConference24 (these are just the ones I could wrangle for a photo post-leaders speech!) Association of Colleges (AoC)

That's a wrap on #LabConf24. 3 full days of meeting MP's, attending fringes and catching up with stakeholders. Great to have so many FE leaders join us this year and increase the college and skills footprint and presence. Now onto the next conf!

The Association of Colleges (AoC) team are at #CPC24. We're hosting a fringe tomorrow at 12:30pm in the Skills Hub and are here until Tuesday ready to talk all things colleges ##LoveOurColleges

The @aocinfo session at the #SkillsHub at #CPC2024 is about to begin. Come and join us on the Mezzanine near the main hall

It's always good to hear directly from young people who experience policies. This afternoon at #CPC24 it was great to hear from the Sea Cadets and the results of their "your views matter" survey. Health/NHS, education, the economy and defence being key concerns for young people

That's a wrap on party conference season 2024! Filled with lots of meetings, fringe sessions and catch-ups, it has been a busy few weeks. For the first time we also supported college leaders to attend party conferences (many for the first time). Big thanks to team Association of Colleges (AoC)!

Yesterday we met with Martin Vickers in parliament to discuss the challenges facing our sector and the key role colleges play in training people for the workplace. We were delighted to see him highlight these issues in today’s business questions in the Commons. #LoveOurColleges

Really fabulous to hear Jacqui Smith at the Association of Colleges (AoC) Annual Conference announce an LGPS guarantee for colleges. This is something we've been campaigning on for some time and it's great to see that the gov have listened to the sector on this.

Great session on funding at #AoCConf2024 Good to hear DfE officials say that they challenge the VAT discrepancy at every opportunity.

It's day two of AoC Annual Conference and Exhibition! We are ready for another day of insightful breakout sessions and key note speakers. Use our hashtag #AoCConf24 and share thoughts of the sessions you are attending.

I've decided to make the jump to the other place (no not the HoL). I'm now on blue sky and you can find me at fiona.bardell.bsky. Feel free to follow me there for FE, skills and some parliamentary content.

And finally... I met with the Association of Colleges to discuss important reforms to the skills sector that could drive economic growth.

I’m delighted to be supporting #CollegesWeek. Colleges play a vital role in building brighter futures for learners and communities across the country.

Great to meet with Lib Dem Spokesperson for Skills and Universities Ian Sollom MP 🔶 this morning during #CollegesWeek2025 to discuss all things colleges, further education and the upcoming IfATE Bill. #LoveOurColleges