When I interview people, I always say, ‘Tell me the line of your heart to FE’,” says Dame Ruth Silver, president of the Further Education Trust for Leadership. “When you ask that, the human being comes out. You have to feel FE in all its splendour and its struggles.

“That’s why it’s important that someone who leads it loves it.”

The story of leadership in FE, and in education more widely, has most commonly been a narrative of the “teacher done good”. Someone who started at the base of the professional power pyramid and, through hard work and determination, reached the apex role of principal or college chief executive.

This is so familiar that it is assumed by many to be the only acceptable route to the top. So much so that college leaders from outside the FE world - who are increasing in number - may be casually dismissed as either inappropriately qualified for the role or emblematic of the sector’s focus pivoting away from education and towards business.

However, the shape, size and function of today’s FE sector bears little resemblance to nostalgic recollections of the family-style colleges of yesteryear. So, doesn’t it follow logically that the type of leadership required by these institutions should also evolve?

A report published in June by the Social Market Foundation entitled “Leading skills: policies for strong leadership in further education colleges” proposes focusing on specific sectors when bringing in effective leaders from outside FE. The report indicates that “local government appears to be a natural source of potential candidates, given its geographic span, its connections to economic development and its focus on partnership working and community leadership”. It also suggests that consideration be given to other “value-driven” sectors such as the military, schools and universities.

One person who has made the transition from local government to FE is Darren Mepham, who was chief executive of Bridgend County Borough Council in Wales prior to taking on the role of principal and chief executive at Barnet and Southgate College in January.

His new job is “less complex” because “it’s leadership of one thing - ie, an FE organisation”, he says. “Whereas before, there was leadership of social care, regeneration, all sorts of public services as well as education, with this, I can focus in more depth.”

However, Mepham does not suggest, by any means, that FE leadership is an easy task. He has prioritised investing time in learning from staff and understanding their views - essentially “keeping the dialogue open”. He considers “breadth of interest” an advantage of coming in from outside the sector.

“It’s easy to be quite inward-looking in FE, because of all the pressures on the sector,” he explains. “To just think about the courses we run, the funding we’ve got available to us and what Ofsted thinks. Having a broader perspective about how FE fits into the needs of the local community is probably easier from the outside.”

The Further Education Trust for Leadership’s Dame Ruth, a former principal of Lewisham College, is a case in point. She is a clinical psychologist and worked in child guidance, as a civil servant and for the BBC’s community education programme prior to entering FE. She is clear that the FE sector is “about the business of learning, not the learning business”.

A good introduction

However, focusing on “the leading of learning”, as Dame Ruth describes it, doesn’t exclude leaders from other sectors, as long as they are thoroughly oriented in a process designed around the individual’s requirements and experience. She adds: “You need a fabulous orientation phase for people coming in from the outside world - a big induction programme both to the system and to the learning itself, and then a tour. And only then do you set them free to lead.”

Michael Smets is an associate professor in management and organisation studies at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, and has worked extensively with leaders from the public, private and third sectors, including those in FE.

He explains that the crucial concept external leaders joining FE at chief executive level need to grasp is “the difference between running a business and running an organisation like a business. The key to a successful CEO transitioning from any private commercial enterprise into an FE organisation is understanding that difference. They are no longer generating private value but shared public value.”

When comparing chief executives’ priorities, the challenges that corporate leaders and FE leaders face are the same - but they must be approached from different directions. It is no longer the organisation first and then the community. The needs of the community are paramount and the organisation must be formed around them.

In particular, when a college is in transition and facing radical organisational change - as witnessed in the many mergers taking place throughout the sector - leaders with more commercial experience may be better placed for the task.

Smets says: “In that context, someone with, let’s call them more hardcore corporate skills - [those skills] may actually be much more salient than the shared-value proposition you would normally expect in these organisations.”

In October 2012, John Thornhill left his position as a chief executive within BT Group to take on the role of chief executive of what was then known as the Manchester College Group. It was his first job in education. Under Thornhill’s leadership, the organisation, now named the LTE Group, has expanded to bring together six education providers and has built a turnover in excess of £183 million a year. It now has 4,200 staff and 95,000 learners.

But why would a private sector CEO want to move into a lower-paid and highly stressful role in FE? “I’d got to a point in life where I’d sorted my personal financial situation out, made a reasonable living, and I wanted to try to do something to create a bit more of a positive impact on the community, society and people’s lives,” says Thornhill.

‘FE made me who I am’

Having spent 11 years at night school in an FE college - gaining an HND, then a degree and a master’s - Thornhill has a personal connection to the sector. “FE improved my skills, developed me as a person, and I completely resonate with the power of that,” he says.

Although the context is different, the leadership of an education conglomerate has many similarities to his previous roles, Thornhill says: the challenges of setting out a vision; engaging people in teams behind that vision; leadership and management of change; the ability to bind and create diverse high-performing teams; creating new boards; bringing in the right non-executive directors; galvanising strategic relationships.

“All of that was very similar but the types of organisations you’re dealing with are different,” he says.

However, Thornhill also appreciates the “specifics of functional and professional differences that are unique to the sector”. He suggests any leader who comes into FE must recognise that, whatever the range of skills they can bring and the elements that can be learned, professional experience counts. “You might not have 20-odd years of experience in pedagogy or teaching, learning and assessment. We need that professional competence from people who have a very rich, deep experience of that.”

Prior to entering FE, Yiannis Koursis had a long career in the hospitality industry, reaching a senior level, running hotels for both small and large companies. Looking for a new challenge, he answered an advert in a hospitality trade magazine from West Suffolk College and was appointed head of department. A series of promotions led to his moving around several colleges, before he joined Barnsley College as a deputy principal, finally becoming principal and chief executive in April this year.

Koursis explains that when you move into the role of leader, the “personal sense of purpose is louder in your head and in your heart”. He adds: “When I became CEO, I got a very weird sense of stewardship. Running a college that has been here for 100 years before me and will be here for 1,000 after me is different to running a company that might be bought or acquired or closed. So, I need to do the best thing for this organisation and its stakeholders during my tenure.”

Although Koursis’ experience in the private sector was extremely advantageous when it came to leading a large organisation, he stresses that he is pleased he spent time in FE learning about the sector’s values and purpose before reaching chief executive status.

“The danger is that if I was coming now from a commercial company into education, I might have had additional experience on the commercial side but I might not have fully understood the purpose of FE,” Koursis says.

One of the adjustments he had to make when moving into a leadership role in FE stemmed from the doubt associated with being the ultimate decision-maker. “When you are CEO, you live in the grey area all the time,” he explains.

Smets considers the causes of doubt in public sector leadership roles as part of his research. He explains: “Because everyone has a legitimate claim on your decisions, you are not choosing between right and wrong, you are choosing between right and right.

“Especially in the current climate, there are a lot of forces that will try to nudge you off course, while you’re trying at the same time to find your own balance as a newly minted leader in an unfamiliar context.”

Once that balance is found, the key is to explain the overall vision for the organisation and focus on how decisions drive that vision forwards. This is how the stewardship of an organisation can flourish - regardless of the background of its leader.

Sarah Simons works in colleges and adult community education in the East Midlands and is the director of UKFEchat. She tweets @MrsSarahSimons

This article originally appeared in the 30 August 2019 issue under the headline “Uncharted waters”