The spiritual landscape of FE – deserted, forgotten or ripe for harvest?
The Government has tried to work hard to lift FE into the political spotlight – as the Education Secretary said last year in a stern voice “FE is not Forgotten Education. It is Further Education“. The sentiment is commendable, but the reality remains that most of the UK population have no real idea of the incredible depth and range of FE provision in the community and this stands equally true for our churches. Not only do FE colleges serve huge numbers of 16-19 year olds with vocational courses and frequently A levels as well, they also teach 14-16 year-olds who do not thrive in school and provide CPD and enrichment courses for adults of all ages. They have large staff bodies and are hugely significant institutions in their communities. Yet very few churches have connections with FE colleges even when on their physical doorstep, and many students will embark on a course at an FE college with very little support from their church family. If the government is saying that it wants to stand by the ‘Forgotten 50%’ of young people who choose not to go to university and to invest in long-term change that will “transform the post-16 education landscape”, then the same ought to be true for us as Christians. This is where Festive comes into the picture.
The goal of Festive is, as our mission statement says, to inspire and support Christians in Further Education Colleges and Sixth Forms to live for Jesus and to equip them as they share their faith through their words and actions. In reality, however, this is complicated as many colleges will actively discourage Christian students and staff from meeting together for fear of appearing to favour one faith group over another. There is also the very practical issue that, unlike school pupils with regular timetables, many FE students and staff are in and out of college at differing times so meetings such as a CU or a staff prayer groups can be very challenging to organise. Many Christian staff and students find FE colleges a hostile environment to Christian faith with colleges typically having a much stronger secular culture than schools. One Christian staff member who we connected with confessed to us she leaves her faith in the car when sets foot into college.
Despite all these challenges and the slightly bleak picture we have painted there are also huge opportunities in FE! The majority of young people in sixth form and FE are aged 16-18, on the cusp of adulthood and in our experience often more open to faith and the bigger questions of life than they have been in the rest of their teenage years. We firmly believe that the best people to reach these young people with the gospel are their Christian friends and we are regularly amazed and humbled by the passion and vision that many Christian students have to do outreach, run Christian Unions and share Jesus with their friends. With a bit of encouragement, support and equipping from Festive, from churches and even from Christian staff there are many Christians student who could be used powerfully by God to bring the gospel to their college.
We have also seen an increased openness from many FE colleges and sixth forms to chaplaincy. Many churches find the 16-18 year old age group the hardest to reach and retain and chaplaincy can be a brilliant way for churches to go to where these young people are. With cash-strapped colleges often struggling to resource student services, enrichment activities or meet their social, moral, spiritual and cultural responsibilities chaplaincy can meet real need and build great relationships between colleges and churches.
Festive runs a number of projects with students and churches to help resource, inspire and encourage mission and outreach in colleges. Whilst the spiritual landscape of FE at times does feel deserted and the colleges and students forgotten we really do believe that FE and sixth form is ripe for the harvest.
Pete Carrington is Festive’s director. To find out more about Festive’s work and to get in touch with them, click here.