Last week was our annual Festival of Student Governance event in partnership with the Association of Colleges, and supported by the Blagrave Trust. Each year we welcome young people from colleges across the country to our bespoke training event as part of the country’s largest further education event.
Joining out delegates this year were Principals and Clerks from some of the many colleges who attended, and it was really fantastic to see these young leaders grow and develop their skills, and see the support they’re getting from the educational professionals in their college.
We spoke with some of the delegates to get their impressions of the event and will be releasing some feature articles in the coming days to share their insight.
First up is Mollie Hehir, the Student Governor at Dudley College of Technology.
“Hi! I’m Mollie, I’m the Student Union President and a student governor at Dudley College of Technology. Recently, as part of my role I attended the Unloc Festival Of Student Governance and annual Association of Colleges conference in Birmingham. This was an amazing experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I expected to meet lots of inspirational people, to understand more about being a student governor and feel more comfortable in my role knowing I am helping students whilst also developing myself and enhancing my knowledge. This is exactly what I got out of it!
The biggest thing I will take away is the networks and people I have met, most of them are great connections. As I said it was a great experience and everything from meeting the Unloc staff on the first night, to the food and general conference were absolutely amazing.
My favourite part was speaking to all the different people helping support the event at their stalls, understanding and learning about people’s different jobs.
The conference itself was very busy but I spoke to everyone who I thought I wanted or needed to. Everyone was so supportive and seemed to want to talk to the student governors.
I loved being involved in this experience and it was a privilege for us to be on the conference floor. It really was an experience I will never forget.
Day 2 was long and tiring but really interesting. I learned so much from ‘roleplaying’ as a Principal to see how they provide reports to the corporation, to debating over pressing issues, it was a really great atmosphere and I felt like everyone was so friendly.
The most important thing I took away, apart from networking though, was that no question is silly, That I deserve to be there and it is my job to speak up on behalf of students, and to let people know what I believe.
I put that to good use and as that’s exactly what I did at my very next meeting, which was the day after the conference! I challenged our Principal and got the answers I needed to ensure students were thought about, listened to and at the forefront of our agenda.
This is also why I wanted to become student president and governor, I wanted to make change, to be that voice for others, to advocate on behalf of others and ensure students are heard, now locally and nationally.
It has changed my life and I really hope its changed others too. To know I have had an impact, even if that is just on one person, means I know I have made a change.
I have learnt so much, and now speak up – a lot! If you get the chance, for anything, then take it! Even if you are scared or it’s a big thing, do it. You never know if you will get that chance again and that is how I now live, how I think everyone should live.
Do the things in life that scare you, it may be that change that was needed, or it may even lead to many further opportunities.
Student governors, as well as student voice is so important to me and it has been very eye-opening attending the training to make me a better student governor.
I loved everything from networking, to debating, to learning about what youth social action apprentices do in our colleges and community.
I’d just like to say thank you once again to everyone attending the event, you are what made the atmosphere so great!”
