Staff, students and community members will be meeting at 10am on Saturday 28th November outside Ashford Campus to show that education is important! We will also be going into Ashford town centre to spread the word and encourage people to sign the petition.

How to find Ashford Campus

To clarify a few points immediately, rest assured that this year’s students are receiving the same care and support as always. We have a dedicated team of tutors and support workers on both campuses, whose main aim has not changed, the delivery of high standard teaching with the learner at the centre of everything we do.

So who do we blame?

We were promised money by the Learning Skills Council (LSC) who are directly accountable to the Government. We were encouraged to forge ahead with our plans and spent our reserves on the understanding that this money was on its way. This quote sums it up beautifully

‘Catastrophic mismanagement by the LSC compounded by government oversight failures could cost hundreds of millions of pounds’

In a nutshell, millions of pounds of taxpayers money has been spent, but the promises made have now proved to be empty – the LSC’s cupboard is bare but they don’t appear to be prepared to refund the money that was spent in good faith.

The closure of Ashford campus has huge and far-reaching implications for the youth of this area. Where will your child go to college?, will there be any spaces for them? and what sort of choices will they have if they want to go the vocational route ?– what about the Supported Learning programme, apprenticeships and A levels, Business training,  the effect on local businesses?, Not to mention our jobs

How can you help/support us

• Write to the people on the attached list, the more noise we make, the better. One voice is easy to ignore, many are harder. Attached is a letter to give you some ideas, please feel free to alter it to suit your purpose.
• Display posters and car stickers showing your support – pick them up from Ashford and Weybridge Campus reception
  
• Add your name to the attached on-line petition or pop along to the college reception or any of our local business supporters and sign the paper version
• Various events will be running – watch this site for details and come along and show your support