The Trafford and Stockport College Group

At the Trafford and Stockport College Group (TSCG), students can get involved in 12 participation groups, including campaign groups like the equalities council and green college assembly, the debate club, events planning team, the mental health and wellbeing champions and the fit and well group.

The college creates the platform, but students design and deliver them. An example of this is the annual Muslim Arts and Culture Festival which includes an art exhibition, dancing, cultural music, a fashion show, hand art and many other cultural experiences. These events link to the college’s work with their communities and provides a means of delivering a range of personal and social development skills.  This is an excellent example of students delivering events to celebrate their culture and for attendees to broaden their global and cultural knowledge.

The college has a robust political literacy offer including parliament week activities, student question time, and more recently a mayoral hustings with five of the six candidates standing for GM Mayor responding to questions from students from across Greater Manchester. Trafford and Stockport College Group joined with the other eight Greater Manchester FE colleges to host and deliver this event with frontline politicians. 

The college also linked with the Greater Manchester Green Summit this year to enable students to network and provide a unique student perspective with key stakeholders determined to drive change and help the city and region meet its ambitious goals for the environment.

TSCG is intentional about engaging its local community and live out the ethos that colleges are at the heart of every community. This is particularly evident in their Welcome Wednesday programme which is an intergenerational activity in partnership with Age UK. Students support elderly members of the community with digital questions, how to get online, avoid scams or even how to keep homes warm in the winter - an activity delivered by plumbing students. In another partnership activity with a local primary school, the TSCG Debate Team taught the protocols of debate and manage a debate with Year 6s. There are many more examples that could be included where colleges run enrichment for the benefits of students, the college and the communities they serve.