Hello. I am Martin Cook and I am the Chair of Governors at MidKent College, the local college for Medway, Maidstone and the surrounding areas.
My role as Chair and our role as Governors is to represent the communities that the College serves. We do that by gaining a deep understanding of how the College operates and what makes it really tick and by challenging and supporting the Principal and College leaders to always improve. As Governors, we all come to the College with diverse business and other backgrounds and experience as well as a huge passion for what the College represents. Governor roles are voluntary and unpaid but we are happy to spend our time and energy on this as we all know, often from direct experience, the importance that first class education and training can have in improving young peoples lives as well as supporting communities and their economies. It matters hugely.
At the time of writing this welcome, as we turn the page on 2020, having good, local, FE colleges has never been more important for the communities they serve. Here at MidKent College, the Principal and his Team have already done a fantastic job in keeping the College running and delivering for our students during the unprecedented challenges caused by the pandemic. Our students themselves have shown great resilience, responsibility and maturity and an admirable determination to make the most they can of the situation. We as Governors are hugely proud of them and all that they have achieved, but we know that if we and our partners are truly to help the communities put under significant strain by the pandemic to recover from the economic pain caused, the College will need to raise its game again. Our aim is to to be leaders in equipping our communities succeed in the new and rapidly changing world and workplaces of the future.
I would like to thank you for your ongoing support in that mission, whether as students, parents, employers, staff, partner organisations or anyone else who has a stake in the Colleges and the success of our students.
Martin Cook
Chair of Governors
(Martin has been Chair of Governors since October 2020. His portrait was illustrated by Sara Malik, a Level 3 student in Graphic Design.)
