Angie McConnell
Membership Grade: Member
Length of IfL Membership: 6 Years 6 Months
Current Position: Advanced Practitioner
Reserved Seats: Gender/FE Colleges/North West England
I am an active member of UCU at Branch, Regional and National level, have been on the National Executive Committee of UCU and, prior to that, NATFHE, since 1995, and am currently Chair of the Equality Committee.
Consequently I have been able to watch the progress of the Institute for Learning as it has grown from being an organisation that was optional to join, to where it is now – a requirement for all teachers in our sector and the body that controls our licence to teach.
IfL says it is “the professional body for teachers and trainers in further education”, and that it enables “your collective voice to influence policy”.
Yet I believe that for most FE lecturers the IfL is a remote and distant organisation that has little relevance to their working lives. The opening up of the Advisory Council and the inclusion of specific reserved seats is welcome and should go someway to making the IfL more accessible. But there is still a long way to go. The reserved seats are for members with an ‘interest’in the various equality strands – but there is no requirement to ‘identify’ as being part of that strand. That must be challenged and changed for future elections.
The day-to-day working life of most FE lecturers is increasingly difficult. Constant pressure to achieve benchmarks for retention,achievement, success rates, constant worries about funding, job security, increased working hours, increased class sizes,increased stress, decreased job security, decreased salary, decreased professionalism.
I expect my professional body to speak out against this on my behalf.
I expect my professional body to campaign vigorously for the professionalisation of the sector, for the proper resourcing and funding which would enable us to do our jobs effectively, for effective and relevant Professional Development, and to demand an end to casual contracts and the use of agency staff by employers seeking to avoid their responsibilities.
I expect my professional body to genuinely represent the interests of minority groups within the membership, to demand pay audits so that employers recognise and attempt to redress the gender pay gap, to insist that employers comply with Equality legislation.
I ask for your vote so that I can join the Advisory Council and try to move the IfL in a more progressive direction which may turn these expectations into reality.
