Information for returners

Returners

This collection of pages is intended to give a short briefing for anyone who was a teacher in the FE sector and for whatever reasons left and is now interested in returning to teaching in FE. We have often had enquiries from people in this position and have developed this set of pages on the basis of the types of questions asked. We make no claim that it is comprehensive but only hope that it may allay one or two anxieties and/or provide a means to getting further information. However none of this is any preclusion to your ringing or emailing us with any further questions.

The following is a list of topics we have compiled some notes on, each linking to another page.

Back to FE back to the future

Being away from an area of work means returning can be intimidating. Almost all areas of employment these days have a dramatic pace of change and as FE has always been a place of innovation and development, diving back into this pool after a break can be intimidating. This set of pages is intended to provide some context and general information about recent changes to the general environment and the teacher/learner interface to help reacquaint you with the FE sphere. As I don’t want to make it too overwhelming, it provides pointers to where you can find out more, although the bottom line is that there is no substitute for having a go. Good luck! And you can always call us for a chat or drop an email.

What is the Further Education and Training sector these days?

Being away from an area of work means returning can be intimidating. Almost all areas of employment these days have a dramatic pace of change and as FE has always been a place of innovation and development, diving back into this pool after a break can be intimidating. This set of pages is intended to provide some context and general information about recent changes to the general environment and the teacher/learner interface to help reacquaint you with the FE sphere. As I don’t want to make it too overwhelming, it provides pointers to where you can find out more, although the bottom line is that there is no substitute for having a go. Good luck! And you can always call us for a chat or drop an email.

What is the Further Education and Training sector these days?

Further education includes:

  • General FE colleges (GFEs);
  • specialist colleges (for example land based or residential special educational needs);
  • Independent Training Providers (ITPs) some of whom are part of the charitable or “Third” sector; 
  • Work Based Learning (WBL);
  • Adult and Community Learning (ACL); and
  • education and training in the justice sector [prisons and Young Offender Institutes] for offenders and young offenders.

Sixth form colleges are not currently regarded as part of the FE sector, rather are seen as part of the schools sector.

Prevent and Safeguarding

Further Education and Training (FET) Providers are expected to take responsibility for the safeguarding of their learners which extends beyond the physical FE environment. Any signs of learners, or colleagues being at risk whether on the programme or not is something that we need to action or refer (refer to own organisations Safeguarding Policies).  FET providers also have a duty to refer under Prevent, known as the Prevent Duty.  The duty ensures that extremism or learners vulnerable to radicalisation are identified, supported or referred as quickly as possible.  It is important that you gain some familiarity with these areas before stepping back into a teaching environment. 

For the Education and Training Foundation’s (ETF) DfE-funded resources, in house training opportunities on Safeguarding, Prevent or British Values or access to the specialist CPD workshops go to Safeguarding and Prevent training courses.

All Safeguarding, Prevent and British Values resources, case studies please follow this link – Safeguarding and Prevent.

Osted inspection

Ofsted and inspection

Ever a significant aspect of working in the sector, even if occasional. The Ofsted common inspection framework has undergone a revision or two.

The 2018 version can be found on the Ofsted website.

Inspectors will make judgements on the following areas:

  • effectiveness of leadership and management
  • quality of teaching, learning and assessment
  • personal development, behaviour and welfare
  • outcomes for learners.

Inspections are scheduled according to the previous inspection result, so outstanding providers are exempt from a scheduled routine visit; good providers are re-inspected after 3 years; requires improvement providers 12-24 months; inadequate within 15 months but require a prompt re-inspection visit. Also the type of inspection varies similarly.

Short inspections are for good providers and full inspections for requires improvement and inadequate. All providers may be subject to monitoring visits and survey visits. Possibly of more interest to staff is that Ofsted inspectors no longer grade individual lesson observations, and they don’t expect to see particular documents in particular formats:

Inspectors are interested in the effectiveness of planning rather than the form it takes (CIF p 21).

The main focus is on the learning that is achieved.

Technology

Technology, qualifications and learners

Technology

There is a need for returners to the teaching role to be up to date with current educational technologies and techniques.  Interactive white boards are now common as is a range of interactive software. Additionally learner tracking monitoring and reporting is usually now an on line process, maintained via laptops or tablets. This can be an area which returning staff find intimidating. Obviously some of this will involve local systems but with regard to the broad sweep of educational digital technology.

Range of learners

FE is now 14-114 – well, sort of…and needs to respond to all prior levels of achievement and ability.

Teaching Qualifications

After a period of regulation of teaching qualifications, the law now makes no stipulation as to what qualifications you have to hold to be a teacher in FE, although employers are still likely to have reasonable expectations with regard to teacher qualification, experience and attributes. The full teaching qualification for FE is currently the Diploma in Education and Training [or DET for short, sometimes also known as a PGCE or Cert Ed]. Those with school teacher qualifications (QTS) are also regarded as a fully qualified for the sector. Those in possession of full teacher qualifications achieved previously, regardless of when achieved, are still regarded as fully qualified.  

Getting some experience

You might want to get a bit of experience under your belt before trying to get a job: get back into the swing of things first. One of the ways to do this can be via a spot of volunteering.

You could contact the Head of Department of your subject at your local colleges and ask if you can do some shadowing or voluntary teaching to update your classroom experience. You can find an A-Z listing of FE Colleges on the Association of Colleges website.

It can be useful to have the name of the person that you need to talk to rather than speaking to HR.

Similarly, your local authority may run classes in your subject area through their adult and community education service.

The local library may have a list of local provision (community and voluntary sector).

Prison education may offer relevant opportunities in your area and, although security clearance for volunteers can take time, it might be something to investigate. This provision is now managed by Prison Governors and therefore each prison will have some local arrangement for the delivery of their training. You are advised to contact Prisons directly if teaching in a prison interests you.

Teaching agencies are used by some employers often to fill short term or part time appointments. This may be a useful way of facilitating a return to teaching.  It’s important to be aware that certain entitlements, such as a pension and sick leave which are provided to those employed directly by a course provider are often not available to agency staff. Agency daily rates may also be lower than those offered to staff employed directly by the employer.

Subject Knowledge

It is important to remain current within your own specialist subject area and in particular with current specifications that awarding bodies prescribe. In this regard it might be useful to do some research into the modern course content of your subject.

For example if you teach maths, it might be helpful to look at the current GCSE syllabus and some recent GCSE papers to get a feel for what is being delivered in the classroom. 

You could look at some college prospectuses (they are usually on line) to see what qualifications are being offered in your area and then research these to see how things have changed since you last taught them; perhaps even think about what kind of scheme of work you might devise to deliver them. This exercise might also indicate areas where a bit of updating would be appropriate.

Terms and Conditions

These contractual features are all now locally negotiated and may be quite different from when you last worked in the sector. Pay, holidays, contact time, class size, the environment, etc are all an evolving picture. The main union, University and College Union (UCU), publishes recommended pay scales for FE Colleges but there is no consistency in pay rates and these may vary between employers and regionally. Lecturing pay rates have been somewhat constrained in recent years and for more generous remuneration you might consider managerial or supervisory roles. Those who take on course team leadership or curriculum management roles can access more generous pay and for those ambitious enough to consider middle and senior management responsibilities, the rewards can be substantial.  

You may find there is an increase in work via agencies; certainly most jobs are now advertised online although, practice with regard to part time work varies widely.