Three cheers for teachers and trainers

Tuesday 5 October 2010

As thousands of learners, families, educationalists and economists around the world celebrated World Teachers’ Day on 5 October 2010, the Institute for Learning (IfL) paid tribute to the 200,000 or so teachers and trainers across further education and skills who make an enormous contribution to the nation’s economy and social well-being. The professional body also renewed its call for an alignment of further education teachers’ professional status with that of teachers in schools, so that teachers and trainers with Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) status would have the same official recognition as teachers holding Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in school settings.

IfL’s chief executive, Toni Fazaeli, said, “IfL regrets that our celebration of World Teachers' Day has to be muted. Under current legislation, excellent teachers of vocational subjects in further education who hold the professional status of QTLS are not recognised as being able to teach in schools. When a school in England wants to expand its practical and applied learning for young people, but cannot recruit from among the best vocational teachers holding QTLS, something is wrong.

“Earlier this year, the children, schools and families select committee acknowledged that the inability of FE teachers to be employed as qualified teachers in the schools sector was ‘an unintended consequence of legislation’. Now we want to see that remedied: England's school policymakers have the opportunity to step up to the plate and show that as a nation we want the best teaching for young people in practical and applied learning, whether they learn in a college or school setting. This is all the more important in the current economic climate, when teachers and trainers in further education and skills have such a vital role to play in helping young people and adults learn the skills so urgently needed to generate economic growth and prosperity.

“I look forward to when we can all celebrate World Teachers' Day unreservedly, the day when the successful teacher of engineering, or construction or health and social care, for example, in further education, can cross a street in England to teach their specialist subject in a school – never mind crossing the world to teach in another country.

"For now, we say three loud cheers for further education teachers and trainers, and no cheers for the extraordinary system that fails to recognise their professional excellence as teachers of young people and their vocational expertise beyond the college gates."