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The Institute for Learning (IfL) has welcomed recommendations by the Children, Schools and Families select committee that teachers and trainers with Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) status, conferred by IfL, should immediately be able to work as qualified teachers in schools if they are teaching post-16, or even post-14, pupils. In its "Training of Teachers" report, the select committee acknowledges that the inability of further education teachers to be employed as qualified teachers in the schools sector is "an unintended consequence of legislation".

IfL also welcomes the recommendation that the government should put in place a mechanism for assessing vocational or professional qualifications as equivalent to degree status. IfL has given high priority to work on gaining parity between QTLS and Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), and to recognising the different but equally rigorous routes to vocational and professional qualifications and expertise that many further education teachers have.

The select committee's report follows its inquiry into training and development arrangements for FE teachers, to which IfL, as the independent professional body for teachers and trainers in the further education and skills sector, offered detailed evidence in June 2009. According to the committee's report, the majority of those who submitted evidence on the training of further education teachers felt that 14–19 provision would benefit from greater ease of movement of teachers across the FE and schools sectors.

Toni Fazaeli, chief executive of IfL, said, "Although the contexts are distinctive, the professional standards for teaching in a school or in an FE and skills setting are very similar, and Ofsted has confirmed that the standard of initial training for FE teachers is now high. IfL believes that 14 to 19-year-old learners – regardless of whether they are in school, college or provider settings – should have the chance to benefit from the vocationally grounded and up-to-date expertise offered by FE teachers and trainers. An acid test for the select committee’s report is whether it leads to FE teachers being able to teach in schools – will we have words followed by actions? At present, specific teaching qualifications are allied to a particular type of institution, rather than the needs of learners within them, and that needs to change.

"IfL is pleased to note the committee's specific support for our work with the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE) in developing an accelerated route to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) for FE teachers, and we are also working closely with the Training and Development Agency (TDA) for schools on this. If the new Diplomas are to fulfil their promise to 14 to 19-year-olds of real choices and sound employment prospects, it is essential that teachers should be able to work across schools and further education, and that there should be enhanced collaboration between the two. We support the idea of joint professional development provision for school and FE teachers in pedagogy and assessment in vocational education.

"Although these points in the report were not specific to further education and skills, we also applaud the recommendations for education research to play a greater role in teacher education; the report’s strong emphasis on continuing professional development (CPD), which is central to IfL’s work with our members, the teachers and trainers across further education; and the priority given to good quality mentoring for trainee teachers. The overarching desire for teaching and training to be, and to be recognised as, a high-calibre profession and a valued career is one that is at the heart of IfL's ambitions and aspirations for our members."

References

1. The House of Commons Children, Schools and Families Committee report, "Training of Teachers", was published on 9 February 2010.
   
   
2. Ofsted's report, "The initial training of further education teachers" was published in February 2009.