Of the many soul-searching documents on further education commissioned by the government in recent years, few have proved to be as seminal as Lord Lingfield’s report on professionalism in the sector
In 2012, the interim Lingfield report was released against a backdrop of bitter division. At the time, membership of the Institute for Learning (IfL) was compulsory for FE teachers. The introduction of membership fees by the sector’s professional body, in anticipation of its government funding coming to an end, sparked outrage among many teachers. A mass boycott, backed by the University and College Union, led to IfL membership dropping from 200,000 in 2010 to just 85,000 in 2012.
The Lingfield report was intended to resolve the impasse. This it did: membership of the IfL was made voluntary, as the institute had “not won the confidence of those organisations which should be its partners”. But few had anticipated that Lord Lingfield’s panel would also call for the abolition of the requirement for colleges and training providers to ensure that their staff were qualified teachers.
“There was a considerable amount of surprise about that,” Lord Lingfield recalls. “But when one examined very carefully the so-called qualification, one saw that it actually wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. It was a very bad-tempered stand-off. I and my colleagues took the view that there could be no answer except that the IfL must come to an end.”
Exactly five years on, the Conservative peer insists that he has no regrets. “Those I have spoken to have said it needed to be done. The government was between a rock and a hard place; we had to choose either the rock or the hard place,” he says.
Badge of distinction
The IfL closed its doors in 2014. Lord Lingfield’s influence in the sector, however, continues. His report called for the creation of an “authoritative and independent” chartered body for the sector; today, he is its chair.
Last year, the Chartered Institution for Further Education (CIFE) welcomed its first members: Blackpool and The Fylde; Bridgwater and Taunton; and Furness colleges; and independent provider Hawk Training. In December, Dan Wright was appointed the institution’s chief executive.
The two years it took for the charter to be awarded was “far too long”, according to Lord Lingfield - a problem he puts down to the “unthinkably obtuse” bureaucracy required to steer it through several government bodies. The institution, however, is making up for lost time. Around 100 providers have expressed an interest in joining so far. So how big could it get?
‘Every provider in the land, providing that it reaches the institution’s high standards for entry, could become a member’
“I’m not going to make a prediction,” the peer says. “But I want the institution, within several years, to rely wholly on its own income, as opposed to the subsidy from government it gets at the moment. In order to do that, it would require probably a minimum of 80 or 90 members. That is what we’ve got to be aiming at, in order to ensure we can financially stand on our own feet.”
According to CIFE’s annual reports, it received more than £420,000 in grants from the former Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in its first two years.
But the CIFE has no intention of lowering its entry requirements in order to attract more fee-paying members - this would be “disastrous”, Lord Lingfield stresses.
So will the CIFE become FE’s answer to the Russell Group of elite universities? He pauses. “The answer to that is both yes and no. The reason for that is that every provider in the land, providing that it reaches the institution’s high standards for entry, could become a member.”
Benefits for members
This appears a remote prospect, though: a “very large number of our FE colleges are really only mediocre”, Lord Lingfield adds. “A huge number of the mediocre ones are now led by people trying their very best to pull their institutions into higher standards; there are only a tiny number of failing or near-failing institutions. But we are interested in getting into membership the most distinguished providers in England.”
The institution is planning a major push to attract members in the next couple of months, and is in talks with the Department for Education about what benefits could be conferred on members. This could potentially include members being “pre-approved for applications for various pots of money”. The institution is also looking at creating associated membership for businesses with a strong pedigree in delivering apprenticeships.
But becoming a member does not come down to a one-off application. CIFE is in the process of developing an ongoing self-assessment system, which will require providers to demonstrate they are still meeting the institution’s exacting standards.
“We would expect our members to keep up to the professional standards required,” Lord Lingfield explains. “They are the people who have got to run the institution. I am but a caretaker; I will be chairman for a few years before I hand over to somebody from the sector itself. It will be a professional body run by professionals, for professionals.”
And, as the country gears up for Brexit, the FE sector has vital role to play, the peer believes. “It’s incumbent upon the FE sector, both public and private, to find out what jobs are needed, what skills are needed and to ensure that it is flexible enough to offer qualifications that will lead to jobs. I think this is going to be a challenging and exciting time.”
