IfL launches its five-year strategy

4 February 2009

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."

 

Read the strategy document (open in a new window)

Watch a short clip and hear from Sue Crowley, chair of IfL and Toni Fazaeli, chief executive (opens in a new window)

Ben Jupp, Senior Policy Adviser at the Cabinet Office, spoke at the strategy launch on the 4 February 2009, download the podcast here (audio file opens in new window) or read the transcript here (PDF opens in new window)

Tell us what you think of the plan by writing to chiefexec@ifl.ac.uk