BMet College's Pat Carvalho elected as the new AoC President

Association of Colleges is delighted to announce that Pat Carvalho has been elected as the new AoC President. Taking over from Corrienne Peasgood, she will officially begin in post on 16 October.

Pat has been the CEO and Principal of Birmingham Metropolitan College (BMet) since June 2021 having worked in further education for over 30 years and as a senior manager for 15 years. Further education has always played a part in her life, providing the training for her first career as a medical secretary at a local Birmingham college, then helping her enter university as a mature student where she majored in philosophy and then an MSc in artificial intelligence before going on to do a PGCE. “I am delighted to be the next AoC President and I hope I can do as good a job representing our great sector as my predecessors,” she said.

David Hughes, Chief Executive of AoC, said: “I am delighted that Pat will be our new AoC President. She is inspiring and passionate about FE and brings a wealth of experience with her from the sector. To be AoC President is to fulfil a really valuable role in advocating for the sector and supporting colleges and principals across the country. I really look forward to working closely with her over the next year.

“I also want to say a huge thanks to Corrienne for her hard work over the past two years. She has worked tirelessly in her role as AoC President and has had an immense impact on our influencing and engaging work in particular.”

Corrienne Peasgood, outgoing AoC President and former Chief Executive and Principal of City College Norwich, said: “It has been an honour to serve as the AoC President for two years, and it's given me the privilege of seeing our sector from another perspective. Getting to know the different contexts our colleges operate in, experiencing the strength in governance we have through working with chairs and governance professionals, seeing new and more experienced leaders stepping forward as system leaders and having the opportunity to celebrate the success of our brilliant students, apprentices and their teachers has been an absolute delight.

“AoC colleagues, staff, leaders and the board have been incredibly supportive, and I'd like to thank them for that. It's time to hand over the reins now though and I'm thrilled that Pat Carvalho is our new President. It's a fantastic role, and I wish Pat all the best.”