WIREDGOV

Following a period of consultation with its members, the Council of the Institute for Learning (IfL) has published its first five-year strategy. As the professional body for teachers, trainers and assessors throughout the further education and skills sector, IfL now has over 180,000 members, and its five-year strategy sets out how it will work with members to make a difference. IfL will:


· offer benefits that members value, to help them continue teaching or training to the highest standards

· increase the professional status of teachers, trainers and assessors and ensure that they are entrusted with their serious and vital professional role, for the benefit of learners, society and the economy

· enable their collective voice to influence policy and decision-making.


Launching the five-year strategy on the IfL website and at an event in London on 4 February 2009, IfL chair Sue Crowley said, "This strategy sets out our vision, our values, our guiding principles and the strategic aims on which we will focus during the next five years. Our vision is simple and ambitious: that our members will be served well by IfL and that practitioners will be truly recognised for excellent teaching and training for learners.


"Underpinning our vision is a set of values, which we have developed with and for our members: professionalism, development, autonomy, integrity and equality. Our strategy covers what we believe the public and learners across the very diverse FE and skills sector, including adult and work-based learning, expect of a professional body for their teachers and trainers."


IfL's chief executive, Toni Fazaeli, said, "IfL has an important role to play in contributing to and sustaining the lifelong learning workforce. IfL gives members the opportunity to share and learn from their individual and collective experiences as teachers and trainers, as this offers individual professional development and the fostering of a wider professional community. For example, we are going to help members share information about how they are working with individuals and companies hit by the economic downturn.


"Continuing professional development is vital for strengthening our members' dual professionalism – experts in their subject or vocational area and in teaching and training methods – and is at the heart of our strategy. By raising members' professional status and giving them a louder voice in policymaking too, we aim to ensure that teachers, trainers and assessors across FE and skills are accorded the esteem they deserve.


"I am enormously grateful to all those members who have contributed to our five-year strategy. I am confident that together we can achieve change and improvement for teachers and trainers and learners - and that our members will have reason to be proud of their professional body."




NOTES TO EDITORS


The five-year strategy document is available to download in PDF format at http://www.ifl.ac.uk/services/docs/1859/IfLFiveYearStrategy2009.pdf 



About IfL


The Institute for Learning (IfL) was formed in 2002 and is the professional body for teachers, tutors, trainers and student teachers in the further education and skills sector, including adult and community learning, emergency and public services, FE colleges, the armed services, the voluntary sector and work-based learning.



Much of IfL’s work is guided by two sets of regulations that came into force on 1 September 2007:


· Revised teaching qualifications, including the introduction of licensed practitioner status and differentiation between full and associate teachers


· Remaining in good standing as a teaching professional, including mandatory continuing professional development (CPD) for all teachers.


Under the regulations, all FE college teachers are required to register as members of IfL, undertake CPD each year and abide by the IfL Code of Professional Practice. The regulations are supported by contractual requirements for LSC-funded provision, which will ensure that the scope of the regulations covers all teachers in the sector.


The government has agreed to meet the full cost of standard registration with IfL for teachers in LSC-funded institutions who register online. IfL also welcomes teachers and trainers who do not work on LSC-funded programmes; they are required to pay their own annual subscription, for which they receive a comprehensive range of professional benefits.


Teachers new to the sector from September 2007 are also required to become licensed practitioners. Although not mandatory for them, existing teachers are also encouraged to become licensed practitioners, as this will become the benchmark for the sector.


As a key partner in delivering workforce reform, IfL is responsible for managing the registration process and for conferring licensed practitioner status.


An independent professional body, IfL is governed by an elected council and works closely with several sector organisations, unions and employer bodies.



CONTACT


Press office:


Lindsay Baugh 07736 246 697 or 01707 392 552

Email lindsay.baugh@howardsgate.co.uk 


Membership and other enquiries:


The Institute for Learning

Bracton House

34-36 High Holborn

London

WC1V 6AE



Telephone: 0844 815 3202

Website: www.ifl.ac.uk 

Email: enquiries@ifl.ac.uk