Fareham College continues to add to its impressive list of awards and accolades and has now been recognised as a Healthy Further Education College.

Mel Brimecome, Health and Wellbeing Officer, applied for the award which is a government initiative encouraging promotion of aspects of health in Further Education for students and staff. It is all about being active and looking after you. Mel has been instrumental in several campaigns including Sex Sense and promoting World AIDS Day with the support of staff and students who have received them positively. Charity sporting events have also highlighted that you can be active and participate for a good cause too.

Mel said: 'It is a great achievement and I am really proud of the services we have in place for students and staff regarding healthy living. As with everything there is always room for improvement and we can only get better. It is great to get the recognition of the service the college provides to staff and students.'

In order to be recognised as a Healthy FE College, Mel had to complete a self-assessment review and construct an action plan which had to seen and signed by representatives of staff, students, the Principal, and Chair of Governors. This was then approved and now Fareham College can say they are a Healthy FE institution.

The campaigns the College has run demonstrate that it is at the forefront of promoting healthy living, including free Chlamydia screening and the upcoming Get Active event in January which will have guest speakers and events run by students and staff to promote a healthy lifestyle and wellbeing.

Mel is now working with other Colleges in the South East regional network and they were given money to utilize in whatever way they wanted to promote being active and healthy. They decided to create a website which shows how to keep active and the colleges collaboratively post news and events about what each institution is up to.

For more information about keeping active, visit http://www.keepingactive.org.uk or http://www.lsis.org.uk to find out what the initiative is about.