Bradford College Wins Prestigious National Education Award

Bradford College has won ‘The Bell Foundation Award for Excellence in ESOL’ category at the 2025 Association of Colleges’ Beacon Awards.

The national Beacon awards celebrate the best and most innovative practice in further education colleges and demonstrate the far-reaching impact of colleges on their students and the communities they serve.

The award is in recognition of Bradford College’s ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) provision, developed in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Learning and development is structured around Shakespeare’s works, and around 235 learners engaged with the project last year.

ESOL students learn about plays, performance, and language, which underpins English development. As well as language skills, students learn about themselves, their new community, and English heritage in a positive and engaging way that instils pride. They develop confidence, improve their mental health (often after significant trauma), and become empowered by their newfound skills.

The College was also a finalist in ‘The Edge Award for Excellence in Real World Learning’ category with the unique Ambition [HUB] enhancement programme. Ambition [HUB] gives students a genuine career edge, as well as a vocational qualification, with an extraordinary layer of additional learning enhancing the Level 3 offering.

Cross-curriculum integration brings diverse subjects and professionals together to collaborate on engaging employer-led projects. From hairdressers working with Yorkshire Building Society to the RSC performing Shakespeare with construction students, the unique model leads to a Level 3 qualification but also invaluable life experiences.

Sarah Towan (Vice Principal Recruitment & Communications) said: “We are so delighted that staff and students’ hard work and outstanding innovation in learning has been recognised. The Beacon awards showcase the very best education has to offer in the UK, so this is a testament of our college’s fierce ambition to do the very best for our community.

“It was incredible that two Bradford College initiatives were selected as finalists, but to have one win and be recognised as being at the forefront of education excellence is exceptional. Well done to everyone involved!”

The winners of this year’s Beacon Awards were announced today (Monday, 3 March) during Colleges Week 2025. Colleges Week is an annual Association of Colleges celebration of the incredible work colleges do across the country, this year taking place between 3rd and 7th March. Case studies from all colleges that achieved commended and finalist status are available on the AoC website here.