BERKSHIRE education authority suffered the ultimate fate during local government reorganisation several years ago.

It was abolished outright and replaced with a cluster of new unitary authorities such as the borough of Bracknell Forest. In the aftermath, many of the new LEAs were hard-pressed for cash.

So setting up an advanced BTEC course in school governance was a daunting prospect. Essex, a surviving shire county with the resources to implement the programme itself, pioneered the qualification (see TES, September 8, 2000).

Now Bracknell Forest is moving ahead with its own BTEC thanks to an innovative partnership with the local Bracknell and Wokingham further education college.

The council also showed some creative thinking in how to help governors finance the cost of the qualification. And it had to tackle issues around the suitability of college assessors.

Sally Herring, governor services officer at Bracknell Forest, spelt out the practicalities: “Obviously we are a small unitary with a small number of staff working on governance. I do not have the skills to be an assessor and we were not registered for the BTEC. There would have been an awful lot of work to get it off the ground.”

Through a contact at Wokingham and Bracknell college she raised the idea of them running a pilot course. The governors’ support team drew on the college’s expertise in administering the course, assigning assessors, registering with the awarding body, Edexcel, and arranging for internal and external verification. There was also contact with Pat Fogel, from governor support at Essex LEA.

Ms Herring added: “Essex was a bit apprehensive because it wanted to make sure the assessors were governors and it remained a certificate for governors. But both assessors were governors and one was involved in training in a neighbouring authority.”

Finance was a second hurdle to overcome. Bracknell Forest agreed to pay about a third of the pound;260 per individual, but also established that most of the rest could be offset from independent learning account funding, a Government scheme designed to encourage lifelong learning. The result is that a governor may only be asked to pay a nugatory pound;25.

Jane Metson, a governor at Easthampstead Park secondary school and Woodenhill primary, in Bracknell, did not have to pay a penny. Her experience of doing the BTEC through the college has been a positive one. “I am quite evangelical for it now and I’m working on other people to take it up,” she said.

Chris Harris, chair of governors at St Michael’s Church of England primary school at Sandhurst, is also enthusiastic. The BTEC helped him identify the areas where he was weak, though he found that it was hard to pin down the amount of detail required. “I didn’t know where to stop,” he said.

Roz Scarth, senior lecturer in teacher education at the college, wrote the course validation document and decided on the kind of support the college would give. “We have completed one set of workshops and are going through the quality assurance procedure of reviewing everything so far.”

LEAs interested in running the BTEC now have a number of models. The classic model involves a self-sufficient DIY approach albeit using Essex’s template.

But Bracknell Forest may lead the way for smaller new unitary authorities who would struggle with the resource implications. Bracknell and Wokingham College is hoping to offer a partnership to the other small LEAs that were created out of Berkshire.

Pat Fogel points out that Essex does not want to run BTECs for other LEAs. One arrangement Essex is encouraging is a link-up between pairs of London boroughs with BTEC-capable LEAs sharing expertise with a neighbour.

Whatever approach is used, there is clearly an appetite among governors for the BTEC approach. Last month the first four Bracknell governors received their award. Five more are in the pipeline, and the council hopes to start a new batch in January.

The interest suggests providers should not get hung up on how they deliver the BTEC. The important task now is to make it available.

See www.tes.co.ukgovernorstraining for more information about the BTEC for governors