Friday 04 May 2007 @ 14:51
Centre for Excellence in Leadership
Centre for Excellence in Leadership
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Leadership network launched for women in further education
The Women’s Leadership Network (WLN), supported by the Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL), was launched at the House of Lords on Thursday 3 May 2007. The network is for women who hold or aspire to leadership roles in further education, and some 60 women from the education sector and government heard Lady Amos and Lady Prosser speak about the importance of women’s contribution to society and business.
CEL’s chief executive, Lynne Sedgmore, and Sally Dicketts, who is chair of the new Women’s Leadership Network and principal at Oxford and Cherwell Valley College, also addressed the guests.
To mark the launch, CEL and WLN published their report on gender-related factors in career progression, based on research carried out for them by the Learning Skills Network (LSN), which identified some key trends in the FE system. Women, as well as men, are contributing to leadership and management of the FE sector in substantial numbers and at every level.
Compared with the national picture for all occupational sectors, women are well represented in education management. More detailed consideration revealed, however, that there is still a significant 'glass ceiling' effect in the FE sector within senior management and governing bodies. The research also revealed under-representation of black and minority ethnic (BME) managers.
Lynne Sedgmore said, “I am thrilled that this network has been established for women in the sector. At the end of the 1990s, one in four college principals were female and by 2005, the last year for which accurate figures are available, the number of female principals still stood at about 100. This latest research suggests that the glass ceiling may not have quite disappeared, but the first cracks were certainly starting to show.
“There is a substantial interest in WLN’s role in addressing gender-related factors in career progression. The research published today suggests that there is a clear need for the professional development and support services we provide. Combined with the guidance-related and experience-sharing strategies proposed for the network, they will be major contributory factors to progression.
“We look forward to working closely with Sally Dicketts and the WLN over the coming months to raise awareness of the network and to develop specific activities to support female leaders at every level. This will form an integral part of our diversity and equality remit to ensure equality of opportunity throughout the FE system.”
Sally Dicketts said, “Having progressed through the sector over the last
22 years, I am only too aware of the many issues that women at all levels face, and I am sure that with CEL’s support we can build on the work initially carried out when the Women’s Network was first founded in 1990. The publication of our important research marks the launch of a new and committed network for female leaders and managers across the further education system.
“I am particularly keen to work with provider governing bodies so that we can share the learning contained in this research. Together, we can assess the potential impact on their organisations and how they understand and consider women’s issues in their recruitment of principals and governors.
“Since announcing the new Women’s Leadership Network, we have received tremendous support from women across the sector and I look forward to working with everyone to build a really strong, dynamic and influential women’s group.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
The research report, “Gender-related factors in career progression”, may be downloaded from CEL’s website at
www.centreforexcellence.org.uk/UsersDoc/GenderRelatedFactors2007.pdf
About CEL
The Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL) was launched in October 2003, as a key national agency within the Success for All initiative.
CEL has a crucial role to play in developing organisational leadership in the further education system to anticipate, influence and respond to government policy initiatives, including, for example, the recent White Paper, "Further Education: Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances".
CEL's remit is to foster and support leadership improvement, reform, transformation, sustainability and quality improvement. It serves the existing and future leaders of all providers within the further education system, including FE colleges, training and work-based learning providers, adult and community providers, offender learning, specialist colleges and voluntary organisations.
Following the publication of the White Paper, CEL will be involved in the introduction of a mandatory principal's qualification and the development of the quality improvement strategy for further education.
The White Paper also heralds an expansion of CEL's diversity and equality remit.
CEL now operates through a charitable trust formed by its operating company on 1 April 2006.
To date, more than 680 different organisations and 17,800 individual participants have engaged with CEL. No fewer than 15 participants from recent cohorts of CEL's Senior leadership development programme (SLDP) have been promoted to the role of principal.
For more information, visit the website at www.centreforexcellence.org.uk
CONTACT
Centre for Excellence in Leadership:
Lindsay Baugh: (07736) 246 697 or (01707) 392 552
Email: lindsay.baugh@howardsgate.co.uk
CEL’s chief executive, Lynne Sedgmore, and Sally Dicketts, who is chair of the new Women’s Leadership Network and principal at Oxford and Cherwell Valley College, also addressed the guests.
To mark the launch, CEL and WLN published their report on gender-related factors in career progression, based on research carried out for them by the Learning Skills Network (LSN), which identified some key trends in the FE system. Women, as well as men, are contributing to leadership and management of the FE sector in substantial numbers and at every level.
Compared with the national picture for all occupational sectors, women are well represented in education management. More detailed consideration revealed, however, that there is still a significant 'glass ceiling' effect in the FE sector within senior management and governing bodies. The research also revealed under-representation of black and minority ethnic (BME) managers.
Lynne Sedgmore said, “I am thrilled that this network has been established for women in the sector. At the end of the 1990s, one in four college principals were female and by 2005, the last year for which accurate figures are available, the number of female principals still stood at about 100. This latest research suggests that the glass ceiling may not have quite disappeared, but the first cracks were certainly starting to show.
“There is a substantial interest in WLN’s role in addressing gender-related factors in career progression. The research published today suggests that there is a clear need for the professional development and support services we provide. Combined with the guidance-related and experience-sharing strategies proposed for the network, they will be major contributory factors to progression.
“We look forward to working closely with Sally Dicketts and the WLN over the coming months to raise awareness of the network and to develop specific activities to support female leaders at every level. This will form an integral part of our diversity and equality remit to ensure equality of opportunity throughout the FE system.”
Sally Dicketts said, “Having progressed through the sector over the last
22 years, I am only too aware of the many issues that women at all levels face, and I am sure that with CEL’s support we can build on the work initially carried out when the Women’s Network was first founded in 1990. The publication of our important research marks the launch of a new and committed network for female leaders and managers across the further education system.
“I am particularly keen to work with provider governing bodies so that we can share the learning contained in this research. Together, we can assess the potential impact on their organisations and how they understand and consider women’s issues in their recruitment of principals and governors.
“Since announcing the new Women’s Leadership Network, we have received tremendous support from women across the sector and I look forward to working with everyone to build a really strong, dynamic and influential women’s group.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
The research report, “Gender-related factors in career progression”, may be downloaded from CEL’s website at
www.centreforexcellence.org.uk/UsersDoc/GenderRelatedFactors2007.pdf
About CEL
The Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL) was launched in October 2003, as a key national agency within the Success for All initiative.
CEL has a crucial role to play in developing organisational leadership in the further education system to anticipate, influence and respond to government policy initiatives, including, for example, the recent White Paper, "Further Education: Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances".
CEL's remit is to foster and support leadership improvement, reform, transformation, sustainability and quality improvement. It serves the existing and future leaders of all providers within the further education system, including FE colleges, training and work-based learning providers, adult and community providers, offender learning, specialist colleges and voluntary organisations.
Following the publication of the White Paper, CEL will be involved in the introduction of a mandatory principal's qualification and the development of the quality improvement strategy for further education.
The White Paper also heralds an expansion of CEL's diversity and equality remit.
CEL now operates through a charitable trust formed by its operating company on 1 April 2006.
To date, more than 680 different organisations and 17,800 individual participants have engaged with CEL. No fewer than 15 participants from recent cohorts of CEL's Senior leadership development programme (SLDP) have been promoted to the role of principal.
For more information, visit the website at www.centreforexcellence.org.uk
CONTACT
Centre for Excellence in Leadership:
Lindsay Baugh: (07736) 246 697 or (01707) 392 552
Email: lindsay.baugh@howardsgate.co.uk
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