Did you know that 2.2 million people in England are studyingand training at a Further Education or Sixth Form College? Did you know that FE and Sixth Form collegeseducate a higher proportion of 16-19s than school sixth forms? Did you know that there are 257 FE and SixthForm Colleges in England (10 in our diocese), often major organisations intheir local communities and employing hundreds of thousands of staffnationally?
Further Education chaplains are at the forefront of thechurches efforts to love and serve this important sector of society. Chaplainscome in all shapes and sizes lay and ordained, paid and voluntary, from acouple of hours a fortnight to full-time. But what does Further Education chaplaincy actually look like, and howdo chaplains make a positive contribution to their local colleges?
West Midlands ChurchesFE Council have put together five two-minute videos, filmed in three colleges,introducing the FE sector, the life and work of chaplaincy teams, and how youcan get involved. Go to our Youtube channelhere. These videos feature our very own Hazel Charlton, Vicar in Halesowen, sharing about the monthly animal caf at Halesowen College.
Within the Diocese of Worcester there are further chaplaincylinks at King Edward VI College in Stourbridge as well as a new chaplaincyforming at Dudley College linked with Top Church, building on the good relationshipformed with the previous Bishop of Dudley.
Further school chaplaincy provision including sixth-formersis also embedded at Dyson Perrins School in Malvern, who continue to employ apart-time chaplain following an ecumenical mission project set up a few yearsago connecting churches and young people across the town. As chaplaincy inDysons grew, The Chase School also opened its doors to the Malvern Chase teamwhere sixth-formers, including some from St Andrews Church, have recently ledan Alpha Youth course for students.
However, there are many more opportunities and FE Colleges inRedditch, Bromsgrove, Evesham, Malvern and Worcester have all had previousexperience of chaplaincy provision and would be keen to set up new projects. Formore information contact Simon or the West Midlands council directly at: info@wmcfec.org.uk.
Watch the first video about FE Chaplaincy:
Watch more videos from the West Midlands Churches FE Council
