Celebrating the Success of Marketing in Further Education
The FE First Awards celebrates the achievements of marketing teams and individuals in colleges and sixth forms from across the country. The prestigious event, highly regarded in the sector, is the only awards to solely celebrate marketing in the further education arena.
When? Monday 2 February 2026, 9am-4.30pm
Where? Eastside Rooms, Birmingham City Centre
Entry opens: May 2025
Award entry deadline: 14 November 2025
Finalists announced: w/c 8 December 2025
FE First Awards 2026 categories:
- Low Budget Campaign Award
- Internal Impact Award
- Events Management Award
- Social & Digital Media Impact Award
- Website Development Award
- Innovation & Creativity Award
- Communications Campaign Award
- Targeted Recruitment Campaign Award
- Prospectus Award
- Sustainability Impact Green Marketing Award
- Apprentice Star Award*
- Rising Star Award*
- Marketing Superstar Award*
- Marketing Team of the Year (Small Team – 5 FTE members of less)*
- Marketing Team of the Year (Large Team – 6 FTE members or more)*
- Best of the Best 2026**
* These categories are only open to colleges in current membership of the CMN at the time of the awards.
** Judged from the winners in each category.
How to Enter
Entry forms and details of how to enter will be announced in May 2025.
FE First 2025
Check out all the photos from the FE First Awards 2025
FE First Awards Gala Dinner
The gala dinner is a formal event, starting with a drinks reception, followed by a three course meal, and then the awards presentation. Dress code is formal, black tie optional but encouraged.
Tickets
CMN members – £90 pp
Non-CMN Members – £145 pp
Payment can be by PO or online.
Booking will open in May.
Travel & Parking
Travelling by train: Birmingham New Street Grand Central Station is only 0.9 miles from the venue. Check it out on Google Maps
Travelling by car: Millennium Car Park is the nearest car park – Howe Street, B4 7AP.
Open every day, 6am to midnight. (Car park is locked at midnight but vehicles may be left overnight – charges still apply. Total cost will be calculated at time of exit). Pay on exit – cash, debit or credit card.
Up to 12 hrs – £8. Up to 24 hrs – £11.50.
Please be aware of Birmingham’s clean air zone.
Accommodation
The Aloft Hotel is joined to the Eastside Rooms. We have secured a special rate for the event of £116pp per night, B&B (+VAT). This rate is only available through the CMN. Please select this option when booking your event ticket(s).
Alternatively, there are other hotels nearby, which you can book direct:
Clayton Hotel – 0.5 miles from Eastside Rooms
Premier Inn Birmingham City Centre Exchange Square – 0.5 miles from Eastside Ro
THANK YOU TO OUR AWARD SPONSORS
Bluestorm are a full-service marketing agency, specialising in supporting colleges across the UK in every facet of their marketing. From expertly web development that engages and informs prospective students to dynamic student recruitment strategies, targeted keep-warm initiatives, eye-catching prospectus designs, and beyond, we’re dedicated to enhancing your institution’s presence.
We’re a well-known name in college marketing, and we’re not scared to shout about it. Why? Because we design and build first-class college websites and apps.
Our team of seasoned account directors, designers and highly skilled web developers consistently go over and above what’s expected in the further education sector, delivering websites that push boundaries and achieve goals. We’ve built large scale powerful college websites with seamless integrations to MIS systems.
A multi award-winning digital marketing agency with over 20 years in education marketing. We work collaboratively with each client, delivering award-winning digital strategy, brand development, websites, SEO and marketing campaigns that deliver commercial results.
Our Mission: to partner with ambitious education organisations that want to grow and use digital as a tool to maximise their return on their investment, and in doing so make a real positive impact to students lives. Our team of 28 are a powerful mix of strategist, creatives developers, data analysts, marketing consultants, and project managers bringing together the right skills, experience to deliver digital solutions that drive commercial results.
Pathways is a suite of career tools that help students see the link between your courses and careers. It brings high quality careers information into your website and shows prospective students and their parents possible career options after studying on your courses.
Pathways is an affordable solution, set up is easy, it requires no extra work from your IT team and helps fulfil Gatsby Benchmarks and Ofsted’s careers criteria.
A well established web design, development, and marketing agency with a strong specialisation in the FE sector.
Transform how you manage student relationships with our intuitive, cost-effective CRM designed specifically for educational providers.
Whether you’re a small, medium, or specialist institution, our SaaS solution creates a single source of truth, streamlines communication, enhances engagement, simplifies data management and centralises all your marketing and recruitment needs—without the complexity (price and consultant need) of an enterprise system!
With quick implementation (<28 Days) and ongoing product updates, our CRM helps you hit the ground running with simple, easy-to-use, sector-specific technology loved by our partners & users.
Reach out to us to see how we can support your institution’s goals with a tool built specifically for your needs.
Award Sponsorship
The FE First Awards celebrates the very best of marketing in the further education sector. Sponsoring an award provides your business the opportunity to be seen by, and engage with, marketing professionals from colleges and sixth forms from across the UK.
The FE First Awards is held on the same day as our conference where there is also opportunity to network with delegates by exhibiting and/or hosting a workshop.
If you’re interested in finding out more, please email: emma@m-network.org