A brave group of male staff from Dumfries and Galloway College have brightened the year for many in the Scottish FE sector this year - giving them a well-earned place among the Tes Scotland  People of the Year. 

Brought together by business lecturer David Ferguson to raise funds for charity Prostate Cancer UK towards the end of 2018, a total of 20 men from a range of departments at the college took their kit off to create a naked charity calendar.

The group was made up of men from a range of departments and parts of the college, from support staff and apprentices to lecturers and even senior managers.

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Strategically-placed props

Over the course of 2019, anyone who purchased the calendar not only lived in the knowledge that they supported a charity - they were also treated to a dozen humorous pictures, showing off FE staff in a broad range of poses.

Each highlighted the individual staff member’s area of work, and so while one apprentice was snapped next to a photocopier, another month showed a vice-principal strategising - behind a strategically-placed desk.

The need to raise awareness was brought home to participants when they heard that one of the men involved in the calendar had himself suffered from prostate cancer. And with prostate cancer the most common cancer in men, with over 47,000 men diagnosed in the UK every year - 3,000 in Scotland alone - they certainly deserve every credit.

“While we have had a good bit of fun creating the calendar, the message behind it is very serious,” Mr Ferguson told Tes last year, urging his colleagues in the FE sector to not put “everything down to old age: keep body-aware and if in doubt consult your doctor”.

The calendar was sold for £5, and the printing costs were being covered by the college, which meant all proceeds went to Prostate Cancer UK.