College Learners Celebrate Glasgow’s Diversity

It’s part of our mission to build Scotland’s most inclusive regional college system and so we are always delighted to sponsor the Glasgow Colleges’ Regional Embracing Diversity Competition.

The competition is in its third year and encourages students from across the college region to reflect on what Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) mean to them. They were asked to use their creativity and learning to communicate the values of fairness, opportunity and respect.

Everyone who entered the competition made a positive contribution to our colleges’ culture and social values. Together, finalists from Glasgow’s City, Clyde and Kelvin Colleges showed how true diversity can add to our understanding experience creativity and communities.

Three entirely different projects won the competition’s top places, emphasising the scope and diversity of learning in Glasgow’s colleges.

Our overall winners, from City of Glasgow College, worked with Enable Magazine on their Boobs, Baps and Mammograms campaign. This was developed to encourage women with disabilities to take part in breast screenings. Research shows that this group is 36% less likely than the overall population to receive a mammogram and that this results in late diagnoses, worse prognoses, and increased fatalities from breast cancer.

Judges were impressed by the strength of the message and campaign, its thoroughness and its scope for raising awareness of an important issue.

The winners found it inspiring to work with a client on such a vital and inclusive campaign and hope that their work can be used to effect real change in practice and policy.

Fashion Students from Glasgow Kelvin College won second place with their Radiant and Brighter Banner. It is a patchwork of handprints, each telling the story of a new arrival to Glasgow’s communities, and was produced in partnership with the charity Radiant and Brighter.

Judges were impressed by the banner’s beauty and by the process of its creation; a collaborative relationship between the learners and new Glasgow citizens, which built skills, social connections and understanding.

The winners want the banner to be displayed widely and show people how diverse and rich Glasgow life is.

‘This Restless Life’, a play by Glasgow Kelvin College’s Drama and Performance students, focuses on the effects dementia can have on its sufferers and those around them. The team would like to perform their powerful, considered and creative play as widely as possible, possibly in conjunction with a charity.

Please view our booklet to see just how diverse our entries were.