FE Colleges

Further Education Colleges in Britain are special places. They are communities where hard thinking is done about what the needs of young people are as they transition from youth into adulthood. The creative ways that staff find to approach this transition mean that college campuses harbour an energy and a sense of hope, even in the midst of the unremitting pressure that college teams now find themselves facing.

Maybe that description doesn’t capture everyone’s experience, but it certainly captures Suzanne’s. Whenever she spends time on an FE college campus, she comes away enlivened, renewed with a sense of potential and belonging.

The student experience is clear in the video below from West Lothian College’s hosting of The Little Iceberg Musical in 2022. The pride they feel in being included in initiatives such as this is clear. As one of them put it: “West Lothian College has been working towards being a trauma-informed college for the past few years now. It has been great to welcome this production to teach us about care and compassion and good practice.”