Lisette D'Cruz

Membership Grade: Full Member
Length of IfL Membership: 8 Months
Current Position: Lecturer
Reserved Seats: Black and ethnic minority/FE Colleges/Greater London

I am currently a part time lecturer for the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London and have worked for Havering College, University of the Arts London College of Fashion. I teach on a range of academic and vocational courses involving beauty and the health industries. I have been teaching for over 10 years; some of my job roles have included being a tutor,lecturer and course manager.

At the age of 15 years I went to California and got involved with Holistic and beauty treatments. Thereafter I discovered the London College of Fashion and embarked on a two year B/TEC course in beauty therapy completed in 1990. I then went onto study at School of Oriental and African studies in 1994. In 1998 I did the 7306 teacher training and went on to do the Certificate in Education in 1999. Currently I am studying on a Post Graduate course with the Open University for Researching Leadership and Management in Education.

I went on to work in the industry for 20 years, working at 5 star hotels across London, health clubs, on the QE2, writing an advice column for beauty magazines and eventually running my own business, thus gaining invaluable experience that would contribute to my teaching in my latter and present career.

My view of the IfL would be to gain recognition for our members, increase member benefits such as discounted travel outside term times and to guide members into gaining QTLS/ATLS. Members I have spoken to feel that there is little benefit going through professional formation as they are not obtaining any reward from it. I would like to change this view and encourage institutions to positively reward members for choosing to achieve QTLS/ATLS by giving them an annual professional allowance that reflects the work that members have to do to gain this status. I am currently an IfL volunteer connections person and have gone through professional formation myself.

My unique selling point is that I represent the part time workers and the teachers. These are the majority of the members of IfL and should be the main voice of IfL. We tend to get lost and sidelined in the structure yet it is we who often are the bricks and mortar for the institutions. In the 10 years that I have worked in education I have seen too many teachers become managers and lose sight of what it means to be a teacher. Policies are often forced upon us that are often nonsensical by management and are not beneficial for teachers or their students. Working in London I have the opportunity to engage with a large black and ethnic minority therefore I feel I would be well placed to represent this group and their needs. I am also a UCU committee member and am passionate about good practice and working within the confines of employment law.

I would like to communicate with the members through on line discussions, surveys and regular events.