After a couple of years in the job, I’ve come to realise that the most important personality trait needed when leading the Association of Colleges must be optimism, followed closely by doggedness. Doggedness is the easy one. There is so much to be proud of about colleges and the impact they have on our society and our economy, and so continuing to say that and promoting that fact comes naturally.

Optimism is so much harder because of the way colleges have been disregarded, pushed around and underfunded. But despite all of that, I seem to be able to start every day with optimism about the future for colleges - and that optimism is growing.

Last week was the inaugural Colleges Week (#LoveOurColleges), in which the college sector excelled itself in promoting the work it does for millions of students every year and in helping to make the world a better place in which to live, work and play.

Thousands of college students, staff and leaders marched in Westminster - despite the rain - and heard impassioned speeches about the importance of colleges that reflected the enthusiasm, pride and the passion palpable in the crowd. After a decade of cuts that are, by now, widely understood and accepted, it was thrilling to be part of a collective action that made us all feel just a bit stronger and more potent.

College funding

The cuts can be encapsulated in four facts. First, that overall college income has been cut by 30 per cent in the past decade. Consequently, staff pay lags behind that in schools (median pay £37,000 to £30,000), young people are being shortchanged with fewer teaching hours than their peers in other countries (15 hours per week compared with 25-plus in most Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries) and opportunities for adults to train and retrain have been more than halved (5.1 million enrolments to 1.9 million per year). It’s easy, given those figures, to see why colleges have had it tough, why morale is so low and to imagine that all is bleak.

The reality, of course, is so much more positive. What Colleges Week showed, more than anything else, is that students are still being helped to transform their lives, achieve their ambitions and fulfil their talents (albeit in smaller numbers than is possible and desirable). My social media was awash with inspiring stories of people for whom their college experience was truly life-changing and shaping. The warmth and regard they have for their colleges are enough to warm the coldest of hearts. That alone is food for the optimism we will need over the next couple of years, during which the severe funding pressures look set to worsen before they improve.

My optimism is fuelled not only by those stories; it also comes from the creeping realisation that the success of our economy depends on - yes, depends on - colleges having a more central role and greater investment. The survey of small and medium-sized enterprises that we commissioned showed this clearly. Some 60 per cent of SMEs said that the biggest challenge they face is being able to recruit skilled people and that half of them see colleges as central to helping them.

Changing labour market

The chancellor has recognised that retraining is going to be increasingly important in a rapidly changing labour market across 50-year working lives. The secretary of state for education has put technical education as one of his top priorities. The prime minister has commissioned a review of post-18 education and funding to help rebalance investment across colleges and universities.

The Labour Party has pledged to launch a new national education service, which will establish lifelong learning in the national psyche alongside health. The Lib Dems are developing proposals for an ambitious lifelong learning account. I could go on. All need investment in colleges for success.

The creeping realisation across society that we need a new approach to lifelong learning is the lifeline colleges need to remain optimistic. It looks as though the Budget on 29 October will give little away, despite the PM’s assertion that austerity is now officially over. Sadly, it looks like we will have to wait for the spending review, due next year, to see how much investment colleges will receive to help more adults, support young people better on their transition to adult life and work, and to pay staff more fairly.

My job is to remain optimistic, infect colleges with that hope and make sure that we build on our #LoveOurColleges campaign. The unity of voice, the power of the collective we achieved last week was fantastic. Let’s not lose that over the next year or two as the need to make our case becomes more and more acute.

David Hughes is chief executive of the Association of Colleges