Ayrshire College

Connecting Communities

Before the word Covid had been heard of, Senior Management at Ayrshire College identified that our college had a role to play bringing people together and connecting our community. We came up with the concept of Connecting Communities, a fully sustainable project driven by strategic planning and decision-making to address the inequality and to improve the quality of life for those in our community. The project had five key underpinning principles, they were;

• Deliver an initiative that would empower staff and students to come up with creative solutions to engage with employers and connect with our communities.
• Design a sustainable programme that would address equality and engage with all ages, abilities, and interests.
• Increase collaboration and engagement with our industry contacts to ensure we are preparing our staff and students appropriately for work.
• Engage with local communities to maximise use of our facility and drive inclusion and local engagement.
• Promote health (both mental and physical) and wellbeing to everyone within our community.

What the Judges Thought

An inspirational partnership initiative addressing challenges faced by our communities. The judges were really impressed with this fully inclusive and practical project which seeks to mitigate the impact of fuel and food poverty by opening up the college to their community.  Judges felt that this was an exemplar of best practice benefitting society which could be readily replicated at low cost for other education institutions in both FE and HE. Fantastic to see such an inspirational initiative from an FE college and would have been our winner regardless of this being a small institution.

What it Means to Win

"Ayrshire College are delighted to have won the highly prestigious Green Gown Award. This coveted accolade highlights that while we may be small we all have the ability to make significant impact on peoples lives through working with others towards a healthy and sustainable future."

Elaine Hutton, Assistant Principal

Top 3 Learnings

1. Hard work comes before success.
2. Awards are good but rewards are better.
3. Community engagement engenders civic pride.