Chaplaincy in a further education college might involve supporting individual students and staff in a crisis, chatting in the coffee bars and corridors, running a multi-faith event to help students understand religious diversity, being a link between the colleges and churches, or working with a small group of Christian students and staff – there is no standard model.
Working with FE colleges is an exciting opportunity to engage with people outside the life of church and meet with the “missing generations”. Many colleges are very diverse communities with learners and staff of all faiths and none and chaplains find this environment to be enriching as well as challenging.
An introduction to further education chaplaincy created by the West Midlands Churches’ Further Education Council in partnership with local colleges and Mazo Creative Agency
Videos featuring Further Education Chaplaincy
Diversity shoes
‘Equality’ and ‘diversity’ are buzz words in Further Education, but they also sum up my multi-faith chaplain role.
As Christians we are surely called to embrace the rich diversity in our communities, encouraging people to explore different spiritualities to inform their own beliefs, and to share their beliefs openly? So ‘Faith Diversity Day’ was born!
I wandered around the campus in my orange chaplain’s hoodie with a band of willing helpers – students are always enthusiastic where food is involved! We stickered multi-faith chaplain stickers on many – guess the religion, win a symbol-shaped shortbread biscuit! It was great to see so many students engage! We put posters around college with religious symbols and key facts; and yes, they were bright orange. We also put an interfaith quiz on the college website.
Many don’t explore any spirituality until something terrible happens...
Encouraging diversity, equality and orange are prompts at Alton College!
Tara Hellings (further education chaplain)
For more information check out our Chaplaincy Resources and Links and Chaplaincy Reading pages.
Check out these Chaplaincy Blog posts too:
The challenge of chaplaincy in new spaces
The highs and lows of starting chaplaincy work in an FE college
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You will find contact details on our Chaplaincy Contacts page.