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More than 2,000 FE teachers and trainers attain professional status

The Institute for Learning (IfL) has announced that more than 2,000 teachers and trainers in the further education and skills sector have successfully completed professional formation in the cycle that finished in April 2012 and have attained Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) status, conferred by IfL. This brings to nearly 10,000 the number of teachers and trainers who have attained QTLS status and are now, following a change in the law on 1 April 2012, recognised as qualified to teach in school settings as well as in further education.

IfL’s chief executive, Toni Fazaeli, said, “The interest in gaining QTLS is growing and it is fantastic that the largest ever number of applications for professional formation resulted in more than 2,000 individual teachers succeeding this time, and that more than 90 per cent of applicants met this rigorous professional standard. The majority of those who have been through professional formation so far have chosen to do so as a commitment to their professionalism, rather than being required to do so, as they had already been teaching in the sector before the regulations were introduced in 2007. Members tell us that they feel very motivated by having the chance to gain professional status and recognition. Of the 2,579 teachers who responded to a survey, 78 per cent said that the process of professional formation definitely improved their confidence in teaching and 74 per cent said that it had improved the effectiveness of their practice, for example, as evidenced through higher observation grades.

“Young and adult learners alike deserve high-quality, professional teaching, and having professional status through IfL provides learners with assurance. Thousands of 14 to 19-year-olds are learning vocational subjects in schools, often in partnership with further education, and the case has been made and won that they should be able to benefit from being taught by highly qualified teachers from the FE sector, dual professionals whose commitment to continuing professional development ensures that they stay up to date with their subject or vocational specialism and with teaching methods.”