Tomlinson trumpets vocational education at IfL awards ceremony

Sir Michael Tomlinson CBE has said that vocational education and those who provide such high‑quality teaching must be accorded greater priority and credibility. Addressing guests at an Institute for Learning (IfL) awards ceremony on 28 January 2010 for members who had successfully completed Professional Formation to gain Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) or Associate Teacher Learning and Skills (ATLS), Sir Michael said that demand for highly skilled individuals who could use knowledge to make things or provide services was increasing, and that the level of skills required was constantly being raised.

"I believe strongly that further education and work-based teachers and trainers will be the driving force behind any policy designed to up-skill the UK workforce in support of the economy," he said. "To meet the growing demands on FE and workplace provision, high-quality teaching and training allied to continuing professional development is vital. IfL has proved its worth in relation to this need and is ahead of many professions; I hope it will continue to build on this work.

"To all those receiving awards today, I wish you continuing success in your teaching roles. I hope that the future will see you given more status and recognition, and the barriers between you and those in schools finally brought down to create a unified professional status, commanding good conditions of service."

Shweta Otiv, an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) lecturer at City and Islington College, said, "Going through the QTLS process has boosted my confidence and enabled me to transform my teaching and benefit my learners. I have a much clearer sense of direction now, and was really pleased to get a grade one in my latest annual observation. I'm sure that all this would not have come about if I had not applied for QTLS, which enabled me to select and focus on some clear goals and commit them to writing – and then it all seemed to fall into place."

Patrick Hamilton is a lecturer in motor vehicle engineering at Cambridge Regional College and chairman of the Institute of the Motor Industry Members Association, Norfolk branch. He teaches 16 to 19-year-olds undertaking motor vehicle qualifications, and his department also teaches 14 to 19‑year‑olds doing pre-apprenticeship courses with Jaguar cars. "QTLS is very important in terms of recognising under one banner all that I have done, as a professional teacher and as a vocational expert," he said. "Schoolteachers have QTS, and we should be on a par with them. I am encouraging my colleagues to do QTLS, and assisting them with the process."

Toni Fazaeli, chief executive of IfL, said, "One of IfL's three strategic aims is to promote the professionalism of teachers and trainers, and raise their standing, so it is with great pride that we celebrate today a second group of members having successfully completed Professional Formation and gained QTLS or ATLS. Giving them formal recognition of their full professional status and their dual professionalism – in subject or vocational expertise as well as teaching skills – is an important step towards our goal of parity of esteem with other professions and with schoolteachers."

Sue Crowley, the chair of the IfL, said, “Teachers and trainers in further education have a distinctive role in the education system, often transforming young people’s and adults’ lives through learning after an initial education that was no longer working so well for them. FE teachers’ and trainers’ expertise in their vocational area and real life working experience in industry helps them to give a strong bridge to individuals into employment or self-employment. High and equal status for FE teachers and trainers with schoolteachers and higher education lecturers is important, with proper recognition for their specialist professional teaching expertise.”

Sir Mike Tomlinson’s speech at the IfL awards ceremony, Thursday 28 January 2010

Note

Teachers and trainers who gained their initial teaching qualifications after September 2007 are required to achieve QTLS or ATLS status within five years of employment in the sector. Although it is not mandatory for them, existing teachers are also encouraged to become licensed practitioners, as this will become the benchmark for the sector.