IEG Marketing Team recognised among UK’s Best at CMN FE First Awards 2026

Inspire Education Group’s Marketing team has been recognised with three awards at the College Marketing Network (CMN) FE First Awards 2026, highlighting the team’s impact, innovation and best-practice approach to marketing within the further education sector.

At the awards ceremony, the IEG Marketing team received:

• Silver – Team of the Year
• Highly Commended – Events Management, for the launch of the Centre for Green Technology (CGT) at Peterborough College
• Highly Commended – Targeted Recruitment Campaign, for the Stamford Sixth campaign at Stamford College

The Marketing Team collecting the Silver Team of the Year award. Photo: CMN

The Silver Team of the Year award recognised the team’s collaborative, insight-led approach to marketing, combining strategic planning, creative delivery and strong alignment to organisational priorities. Judges praised the team’s ability to deliver high-impact campaigns and events that support student recruitment, stakeholder engagement and wider strategic objectives.

From left to right: Presenter Ed James with Kate Knight, J-J Middleditch and Amaan Joondan collecting the Events Management award. Photo: CMN

The Centre for Green Technology launch, recognised in the Events Management category, brought together national and regional stakeholders, employers, policymakers and partners. The event helped position Inspire Education Group as a leader in green skills education while showcasing significant investment in future-focused facilities.

From left to right: Presenter Ed James with Laura Saunders, Laura Wells, Kristian Mansfield and Daniel Willcocks collecting the Targeted Recruitment Campaign award. Photo: CMN

The Stamford Sixth targeted recruitment campaign, also Highly Commended, was recognised for its strong audience focus, refreshed brand identity and clear articulation of progression pathways, academic offer and student experience.

Kristian Mansfield presenting at the CMN Conference. Photo: CMN

Earlier in the day, Kristian Mansfield, Digital Marketing Lead at Inspire Education Group, contributed to the CMN conference programme by delivering a session on marketing automation and system integration. The session explored how automation can eliminate manual tasks by integrating systems, passing data seamlessly between platforms and enabling teams to focus more on creativity and strategy.

Attendees gained practical insight into moving away from time-consuming manual workflows and towards streamlined, automated processes that deliver greater efficiency, accuracy and impact. The session reinforced IEG’s role not only as an award-winning marketing team, but also as a contributor to sector-wide learning and innovation.

The recognition at the CMN FE First Awards reflects Inspire Education Group’s continued investment in marketing excellence and its commitment to sharing best practice across the education sector.