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PROJECT: EAP 75

ENGLAND-AFRICA PARTNERSHIPS IN HIGHER EDUCATION SUPPORTING ACCELERATED AND SHARED GROWTH IN SOUTH AFRICA

REPORT ON THE TRAINING OF FET COLLEGE LECTURERS IN SOUTH AFRICA, ENGLAND AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL

CONTEXTS

January 2008

Prepared by Dr Joy Papier, FETI Institute, UWC (with input from Prof. Simon McGrath, Nottingham University)

This document is an output of the EAP (England-Africa Partnerships in Higher Education) project funded by the UK Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) for the benefit of the African Higher Education Sector. University partners in the project are the University of Nottingham, the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal and the University of the Western Cape. The views expressed are not necessarily those of DIUS, British Council or the Universities concerned.

List of Abbreviations APL Accreditation of Prior Learning

CERTED Certificate in Education

CETTS Centres for Excellence in Teacher Training

CPD Continuous Professional Development

CPUT Cape Peninsula University of Technology

DANIDA Danish International Development Agency

FE Further Education

FET Further Education and Training

FHEQ Framework of Higher Education Qualifications

HRD Human Resources Development

ITE Initial Teacher Education

LLUK Lifelong Learning United Kingdom

NPDE National Professional Diploma in Education

NVQ National Vocational Qualification

OFSTED Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills

QTLLS Qualified Teacher in Lifelong Learning Status

QTS Qualified Teacher Status

TVET Technical and Vocational Education and Training

UKZN University of Kwa-Zulu Natal

UWC University of the Western Cape

VET Vocational Education and Training

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Table of Contents Page No Executive Summary 4

Introduction 6

Background to vocational lecturer development in SA 6

Training and development of FET college lecturers in South Africa 7

Training and development of FE college lecturers in England 11

A snapshot of European and Scandinavian systems 19

Conclusion 20

References 21

Annexure A 22

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report on FET college lecturer training is an output of a project sponsored by the British Council. A

collaborative project which extends across three universities – the University of the Western Cape and

the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa, and the University of Nottingham in England, it is

intended to add to the body of knowledge which might assist the introduction of formal national training

programmes for FET college lecturers in South Africa. Indications are that the national Ministry intends

to shortly set out national standards for vocational teachers, in the light of which models of training

provision will be considered.

This research component reports on current South African university teaching programmes that could

be identified as being directed at college lecturers, as well as the training of vocational teachers in

England, the latter information being obtained through a project visit to training programmes for FE

college lecturers in the English Midlands. In addition, a Danida sponsored report1, the product of

collaboration between a Danish consultancy and South African counterparts, provides valuable insight

into the Danish and other European instances/models of vocational teacher training. These combined

sources of information offer useful comparatives which might assist policymakers and implementers in

South Africa in their deliberations on suitable routes towards professionalisation of vocational teachers

in FET colleges.

Our study of international examples of vocational lecturer preparation indicates the following:

• The move towards professionalisation, standardisation and certification of FET college lecturers

is an international phenomenon;

• Reform in international college systems has been incremental and long-term, with frequent

reflection and revisions which are still ongoing;

• Qualifications and programmes must be designed to suit the needs and context of vocational

college lecturers;

• An in-service model of training and development of college lecturers is prevalent in England,

while Germany and the Netherlands have pre-service vocational teacher qualifications;

• In England a university-college training partnership model has been employed, with the

university largely in a quality assurance role and where most of the delivery takes place at the

1 As a researcher in the Danida project I include insights gained through that study, however the research report is not yet in the public domain.

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college. In a few instances FE colleges offer their own qualifications (that conform to national

standards) and which are ‘badged’ by a university. College lecturers also do qualifications

offered by other certification bodies like City and Guilds;

• In Denmark there is a dedicated national Institute for Vocational teacher training (DEL) which

also conducts relevant research in the vocational sector;

• Subject didactics in vocational subject specialisms is an important component of the preparation

of a vocational college lecturer – in England, pedagogy and theory are applied within clustered

learning sets for subject area groupings;

• Mentoring and supervision by qualified and experienced mentors are necessary features of

lecturer preparation in both the English and European systems. In Denmark mentors undertake

a mentoring qualification to qualify as mentors;

• Vocational college lecturers enter college teaching from various routes and hence a variety of

routes toward certification have to be considered;

• Incentivisation is an important element of recruitment and retention in the English college

lecturer development programmes;

• Peer networks eg. CETTS in England encourages sharing of best practice, partnerships and

collaborative quality assurance;

• Parity of esteem and articulation between school-teacher and college lecturer qualifications is

still an issue in England and is the subject of much debate – inconsistencies still exist across

training programmes offered by various institutions;

• The Level 5 Diploma (of which Level 4 is a higher education Certificate) course in England is

unitised and credits can be accumulated. As a part-time course it is done over two years, or full-

time in 1 year;

• Continuous professional development units are offered throughout the year to keep lecturer

knowledge and skills updated.

While conditions may vary greatly across the different education contexts in England, Europe and

Scandinavia, it is clear from this report that vocational systems across the globe have grappled with

many of the same issues that manifest in the South African FET college sector. The report shares

some of these comparative experiences in the belief that they will find resonance in emerging systems

and serve as a sounding board when implementation decisions are required to be made.

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Introduction

This report surveys the provision of formal training programmes to FET college lecturers at the present

time, and builds on an earlier survey initiated by a Danish consultancy in August 2007 that investigated

capacity building interventions offered to college lecturers in South Africa by higher education and

private providers.

For this report the writers attempted to find additional instances of formal training programmes for FET

lecturers to supplement the information that was already available through the Danish study. To avoid

repetition of the evidence previously obtained, a summary analysis of the training programme provision

in South Africa is provided for purposes of comparison with English institutions and individual summary

institutional details annexed as Annexure A. The comparative English component of this report

describes the experiences of Universities and FE2 colleges in the British Midlands with regard to

vocational educator training and is set out in the body of this report. Two higher education institutions

and two FE colleges in England were visited to gain an understanding of qualifications and

programmes for teachers in vocational colleges. Salient elements of Scandinavian and European

systems are included for purposes of comparison.

Background to vocational lecturer development in SA

South African FET college lecturers have faced a barrage of policy changes in 13 years since 1994,

which for the sake of convenience are briefly referred in this section, but which South African readers

familiar with this context may skip over. A government White Paper in 1998 set out a rationale for

transformation of the vocational college sector and a development path similar to that undertaken by

colleges in England in the 1970’s. First came the rationalisation and merging of an inequitable

assortment of 152 technical colleges in 2000, to 50 multi-site and diverse FET colleges intended to

cater for the wide ranging needs of those seeking employment, returning to learning, re-training,

vocational preparation and access to higher education. Major recapitalisation of colleges for much

needed infrastructural overhaul was followed in 2006 by extensive curriculum reform and the phasing

out of outdated college programmes.

2 The terms ‘Further Education’ (FE), ‘Further Education and Training’ (FET), ‘Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) are used variously in different countries to refer to vocationally oriented education that takes place in vocational colleges/instituitions.

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In a process which mirrors that of English FE colleges some years ago, college lecturers were on the

31st October 2007 required to transfer their contracts to College Councils, a move towards giving public

colleges more autonomy and public accountability. College Councils are presently contemplating the

implications with regard to conditions of service and related employer responsibilities.

College lecturers in the old dispensation were not required to have specific teaching qualifications.

Their technical qualifications and years of experience were given equivalence for remuneration

purposes, using pay-scales applicable to school-teachers. Where provincial departments of education

made it a requirement for lecturers to obtain a teaching qualification, a few higher education institutions

offered diploma programmes which have since become outdated. The national Department of

Education indicated in 2007 that it would shortly publish a new framework of qualifications recognised

for teaching in FET colleges. This will entail a curriculum development process in higher education

institutions that choose to offer such qualifications. Where information on college lecturer training

programmes at universities and universities of technology could be obtained, it shows that these

institutions have in the absence of national vocational teacher training programmes been offering

adapted versions of school-teacher preparation programmes based on Norms and Standards for

Educators in schools (2000).

Training and development of FET college lecturers in South Africa In South Africa, teacher education is the responsibility of higher education, and takes place in

faculties/departments of education in Universities or Universities of Technology. College lecturers in

technical fields have through the years been recruited from industry and usually possessed technical

qualifications and wide workplace experience and knowledge. Many lecturers in academic subjects like

Language, Mathematics or Science entered colleges with school teaching qualifications but little

industry experience. Since the skills legislation of 1998 where colleges offer sector specific training,

lecturers have also been acquiring Assessor and Moderator qualifications offered by private providers.

Prior to the new suite of teacher qualifications registered on the National Qualifications Framework,

some higher education institutions offered Diploma courses to FET college lecturers, but these largely

fell away once new qualifications were designed against the Norms and Standards documents of 1998

and 2000. Since then, college lecturers have either undertaken qualifications intended for school

teachers, or some universities and universities of technology have adapted their teacher qualifications

to the more vocational context of FET colleges. By and large there is little uniformity in how teachers for

the college sector are prepared. The national Ministry of Education is currently designing a framework

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of recognised qualifications for teachers in FET colleges, which will usher in a new era of curriculum

development for those higher education institutions that wish to offer them. To date education in the

different sectors – schools, colleges, universities – has tended to be conducted in silos, where the

sectors have little knowledge of the needs, imperatives and concerns of the other, hence little

experience of vocational teaching exists in traditional university faculties of education. Although the

Department of Education (2004) has engaged in research on human resource needs in the FET

college sector there has not really been a coherent strategy for addressing the development of college

personnel, and such quantitative data as does exist (HRD Reviews 2003; 2008) is still based on

statistics dating back to 2002. Indeed the latest HRD Review (2008) states that “the lack of strong

system-wide data for the more recent period is itself a finding of this review chapter” (p.275).

Research done by a Danish-South African project (2007) investigated identifiable training programmes

in public higher education institutions for FET college lecturers and showed that there is a growing

awareness of the need for such programmes, but also for guidance with regard to appropriate

offerings. Where FET lecturer training is offered by universities this exists as an ‘add-on’ to the

traditional teacher education programmes that these institutions provide, and has to be made viable. As

is common to universities internationally, teacher education in South Africa occupies low status and

generally receives the lowest funding in the academy. In South Africa, universities have come through

a merger process in the last ten years, faculties of education have been rationalised, and colleges of

education which previously specialised in teacher education for school teachers, have been

incorporated into higher education or closed. Thus university Faculties/Schools/Departments of

education as they are variously known have constantly been driven by funding norms and incentivised

programmes (like Maths and Science education) that attract the highest funding, rather than catering to

the needs of teachers across the board.

The imperative to train teachers for schools, and the successive policy changes that have affected the

school sector, have compelled teacher training institutions to focus heavily on the needs of schools,

while FET colleges have remained in the background, something of an ‘unknown quantity’ in many

higher education faculties. Given the limited options for obtaining relevant teaching qualifications (upon

which promotion and remuneration is based for college lecturers), colleges have approached

universities and requested that they construct qualifications for their sector. This appears to have

occurred on a larger scale in cases where external donor agencies have been willing to sponsor such

development and delivery, as in the case of Kwa-Zulu Natal and the Western Cape, where Danida has

funded college interventions offered by the university. Where funding for such initiatives has been

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limited, programme development for college lecturers has been left in the hands of one or two staff

members in the faculty.

Summary of current university3 offerings to FET college lecturers (see Annexure A)

The section which follows provides a snapshot picture of the kind of training being offered by South

African universities to college lecturers, while summary data is annexed hereto as Annexure A. As the

largest cohort of FET lecturers who need teaching qualifications are those currently teaching in

colleges, the most appropriate nationally recognised qualification at the present time which

acknowledges the vocational sector as a possible target, is the National Professional Diploma in

Education (NPDE). An undergraduate in-service programme, this qualification was designed for

upgrading of school teacher qualifications, using the Norms and Standards for Educators published by

the Ministry of Education. The NPDE was intended to be an interim qualification to bring under-qualified

teachers in schools up to qualified teacher status (QTS), or REQV 13. Teachers were therefore

awarded the first 120 credits of the qualification in recognition of their teaching experience in schools.

Universities have, through partnerships with the provincial Departments of Education and each other,

taken on the substantial task of providing the NPDE to those in-service school teachers who require it,

a process which has taken longer than initially envisaged. Universities have had to adjust their delivery

of full-time teacher education to an in-service mode with contact times either in blocks or over

weekends depending on the site of delivery, and have had to be flexible about their requirements. More

recently the NPDE with a vocational orientation has been offered to college lecturers.

From the investigation done to date, it appears that education faculties have in the main offered to

college lecturers an adapted version of the NPDE qualification intended for the upgrading of

schoolteachers. While universities have made attempts to accommodate the college context, this is

often not immediately overt except perhaps in the case of UKZN where FET policy and global issues

appear clearly in the course outline. The motivation for offering college lecturer training appears to be,

in the case of universities of technology, the historical association of the ex-Technikons with training

programmes for technical lecturers. In other cases a motivating factor was the request of FET colleges

sponsored by donor funding to acquire teaching qualifications for their lecturers.

The focus in university education programmes is on the pedagogical/theoretical skills which lecturers

need to acquire to become competent teachers in a vocational context. However, the CPUT convener

3 The term ‘university’ is intended to refer to all registered public higher education institutions including universities of technology. The latter’s equivalent in England would perhaps be the ‘new universities’.

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pointed out that college lecturers with various subject specialisms enter the programme and expect to

be taught pedagogy and methodologies which are contextualized and relevant to their specific field (eg.

Hairdressing, Business Studies, Engineering). While university lecturers are appointed as needed to

teach pedagogy within the various subject specialisms, this is often not financially viable. For instance,

if there are small numbers of lecturers within specific disciplines it is expensive to provide a specialist

subject didactics lecturer for each group. Vocational teaching areas are therefore clustered for

purposes of method courses in an attempt to reduce teaching costs. A course convenor in KwaZulu

Natal acknowledged that there is a need for technical subject matter upgrading (requested by college

lecturers) and indicated that there are thoughts about the university’s collaboration with, for example, a

university of technology in that province in order to develop this aspect. From the reading lists and

assignments in the course content, it appears that the courses set high academic standards and

readings look fairly challenging perhaps for lecturers who have been out of an academic arena for

some time, or who came into teaching directly from the working environment.

Since the NPDE is an in-service programme, universities have offered the course in small blocks of

contact time (5-10 days) with follow up visits of 1-2 days. In the urban areas where college lecturers

travel from relatively close proximity to the university, the course is run on Friday evenings and

Saturday mornings throughout the academic year. Where course participants live further afield from the

University campus, as in the case of UKZN, university lecturers travel to the college campus for block

periods of contact time.

The numbers of lecturers who have enrolled for the NPDE are relatively small and universities are not

convinced about the viability of these courses in the absence of government or donor funding. A

course convenor questioned the lack of recent data on the number of lecturers who needed this course

or other educator training, as his faculty could not put major resources and effort into developing such

programmes without being sure that there would be sufficient uptake. In his view, the lack of individual

college lecturers applying for the programme was the result of insufficient incentive to do so. He

mentioned the absence of any ‘ministerial imperative’ for lecturers to have a particular teaching

qualification and thought that such a directive would be necessary before lecturers would take up

teaching qualifications in larger numbers. Another comment from a convenor was about the lack of

clarity (certainly in higher education he averred) about what exactly FET colleges were meant to be and

what they were teaching, which might inform what they needed to be trained in. Furthermore he

questioned who the vocational trainers of college lecturers were likely to be, as there was little

experience in higher education of this sector. In his view higher education institutions were ‘feeling their

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way in the dark’ in regard to training of college lecturers as very little direction was being given. By way

of comparison I now proceed to consider training of Further Education (FE) lecturers in England.

Training and development of FE college lecturers in England

A comparative element was added to the review of current training interventions offered to FET college

lecturers in South Africa through a visit to Nottingham and an investigation into FET lecturer training

programmes offered at institutions in the English Midlands. Colleges in the UK became autonomous in

1992, which is the stage at which colleges in South Africa are now in their development. Generally, FE

in England exhibits many of the trends seen in South Africa regarding corporate governance, flexibility

and responsiveness, professionalisation and certification of college staff. Reform in FE has taken place

over a period of about 15 years, with frequent reflection and revision of systems and policy. Some

colleges are now sufficiently capacitated and have earned the confidence of universities to be able to

offer initial teacher education for college staff. Whereas previously there were no entry requirements for

lecturers in FE colleges, lecturers now have to be qualified and have literacy and numeracy to at least

Level 2.

Awards in teacher education exist at Levels 3-7 of the qualifications framework (see below). While

upgrading of subject knowledge and pedagogical skills are understood to be developed separately and

incrementally, there is the acknowledgement of the importance of mentoring in subject specialisms.

Entry requirements for FE college teacher qualifications are fairly open and flexible. There are separate

qualification standards for those intending to teach in schools and for teaching in colleges, which

manifests some tensions within the system.

Since 1992, there has been a growth of leadership, governance, management and support cadres all

requiring staff development. This has contributed to the development of increasingly ambitious and

sophisticated staff training functions that articulate between Initial Teacher Education, Continuous

Professional Development, Human Resources and quality functions (including performance

management). The challenge to staff development is that of the huge diversity within single providers

and systemically. Recent developments include the establishment of an Institute for Learning and CPD

portal, the emergence of a renewable licence to practice and acknowledgement of the importance of

incentivisation (money/time) for staff who participate in ITE or CPD. Inspection and funding regimes

have also played significant roles. More recently Centres for Excellence in Teacher Training (CETTS)

provide networks for organisations involved in Initial Teacher Training and Continuing Professional

Development in the FE (Learning and Skills) sector, in an attempt by government to encourage best

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practice, peer review and partnerships. The system has by and large been strengthened by growing

collaboration encouraged by the state, indications of which can be seen in the section which follows,

however it may be too soon to tell how sustainable these efforts are likely to be.

The following representation of the UK Higher Education Qualifications Framework is given for

reference purposes when the programme offerings are discussed in more detail below:

FHEQ level NQF Equivalent Qualification types

Certificate 3 Induction/orientation type programmes, short courses,

Certificate 4 Certificates of higher ed

Intermediate 5 Foundation degrees, bachelors degrees, diplomas of higher ed and further ed, higher national diplomas, other higher diplomas

Honours 6 Bachelors degrees with honours, graduate certificates and graduate diplomas

Masters 7 Masters degrees, postgrad certificates, postgrad diplomas

Doctoral 8 Doctorates

New College, Nottingham

The project team visited New College Nottingham and discussed with the Coordinator of Continuing

Professional Development, their training of lecturers for FE colleges. New College is one of the few

colleges in the country that offers initial and continuing professional development for college staff which

it delivers itself. Through an accreditation with Nottingham Trent University, a higher education

institution with roots as a ‘polytechnic’, the College delivers its own qualifications which are then

badged by the University. The focus is to move lecturers in FE to Qualified Teacher Status (Lifelong

Learning sector) however there is as yet no parity of esteem or portability between school-teacher and

college-teacher qualifications (Brand, 2007; Simmons & Thompson, 2007). The emphasis of the most

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recent OFSTED report on teacher training for FE (2006) had been on lecturer professionalism,

mentoring and support, which the college has taken seriously in its training programmes.

According to government regulations lecturers were given 5 years to achieve teaching qualifications, as

the following statement indicates:

The government is committed to having a fully qualified FE workforce and expects each college and provider to ensure that all their teaching and training staff achieve, or are working towards, qualifications by not later than 2009/10. Tony Fazaeli, Deputy Director, Dfes, Improvement Group, 15 June 2007

In terms of the Framework, Level 4 gives lecturers the status of Associate Teacher and Level 3 is

preparation to teach, a minimum requirement for teaching in an FE college. The Level 3 course is a

pre-higher education induction/orientation programme for lecturers who don’t necessarily want to

achieve full lecturer qualification status. Level 3 consists of 30 hours of study, whereafter lecturers can

move into the Level 4 Certificate and then into the Diploma at Level 5 for possible QTLS (qualified

teacher in the Lifelong Learning sector) status. The level 5 programme at the college is offered as an

in-service programme.

Lecturers in different subject areas are clustered into ‘learning sets’, it being impracticable to work with

each of the specialisation areas individually. Lecturers then have to apply pedagogy and theory within

their own subject areas. However, each learning set has a subject specific mentor who is a specialist in

that field and who has to conduct observation of the lecturer’s practice lessons and support their

learning. Subject specific mentors have to have both a teaching qualification and be qualified in the

field of vocational specialisation.

Training programmes have to be delivered against the LLUK (Lifelong Learning UK) standards, a

nationally approved set of standards for FE lecturer preparation published in September 2007.

Students on the LLUK programmes ordinarily enter with relevant vocational qualifications. The LLUK

standards are intended for teachers in the Lifelong Learning/Skills sector and cover six domains in

which ‘professional knowledge’, ‘professional practice’ and ‘professional values’ are set out as

outcomes. The 6 domains are:

• Professional values and practice

• Learning and teaching

• Specialist learning and teaching

• Planning for learning

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• Assessment for learning

• Access and progression

The LLUK standards can be developed in terms of optional units depending on a lecturer’s

specialisations. Lecturers are required to do 30 hours of CPD per year to maintain their QTS. In

addition, all lecturers are required to have at least Level 2 literacy and numeracy. Assessor units can

be taken as part of the qualification or as stand alone units. Lecturers are also given 70 hours of

remission time per year in order to attend to their studies which may take place over evenings or

weekends.

The offerings in the Level 5 programme are unitised, whereby lecturers can accumulate credits over

two years part-time. As a pre-service qualification it is a 1 year full-time programme whereafter

students could transfer to the University. Colleges offer a wide range of courses to their students – from

‘Skills for Life’ to 14-19 year olds, essentially to cater for those students who need to acquire literacy,

numeracy – to the academic school programme and occupational/vocational courses. This results in a

wide variety of students, youth, adults and workers for retraining, which has implications for lecturers

who may need specialist units in order to teach on particular programmes.

Continuous professional development units are offered to lecturers throughout the year. These courses

are funded by the local authorities and lecturers are not required to pay for courses or for diplomas.

The head of the School for Teacher Training within New College has a Directorate of Quality which

looks after staff development, quality and teacher training. It is the development and training arm of the

college where all teacher training takes place. Lecturers from other colleges also attend courses here.

However, it is almost a ‘virtual’ centre, with a small core staff, but mentor teachers and facilitators in the

teacher training programme are contracted according to the needs of the lecturers in the programme

and the learning sectors. All the students are in-service lecturers and most materials for the course are

available on-line.

West Notts College

This college is located about 30 miles outside of Nottingham in a relatively poor working class

community which was a former coal mining area. College leaders cite low self esteem, poor

employment prospects, high teenage pregnancy, anti-social behaviour and low participation post 16

years, as problems that confront them in this community. In spite of this the college boasts numerous

successes, amongst which is a retention rate of 92% and being in the top 10% of colleges nationally. A

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new modernised site is planned for the college in the near future, as its current buildings are beginning

to require expensive maintenance. The student body consists of 14-19 year olds, adults, higher

education students, employers and international students, with the 19 years and older group being the

largest at 14 000 headcount.

The college has about 1107 employees, of whom 356 are permanent teaching staff and 270 are

‘sessionals’ (contract staff). There is a high level of administrative support with 411 support staff.

Lecturers are required to have one vocational level qualification above the student level that they are

teaching. However, the college encourages the acquisition of a degree in the subject specialism of the

lecturer, where such degrees exist. The college does not deliver qualifications for lecturers itself.

However, it does offer foundation degrees in partnership with the university. Colleges depend on the

Learning and Skills Council for its funding stream. Skills for Life (fundamentals) are embedded into

vocational programmes.

The Heads of School are curriculum team leaders. Lecturers are appointed on 6 months probation and

are required to do the ‘Preparation to Teach’ course at Level 3/4 if they do not have a teacher

qualification. All teaching staff have to achieve the LLUK qualification by no later than 2009/10, as per

the 2007 regulation. Some lecturers have gone the CERTED route and have sought qualified

schoolteacher status. The 30 hour entry level award is 6 credits and is based on units of learning. 75%

of the units relevant to teaching are mandatory and 25% are optional. If the 6 credit award is done as a

stand alone course, students can apply for APL (accreditation of prior learning) for access into the

CERTED qualification. Assessors of NVQs are expected to do this Certificate. 5 days are allocated in

the time-table as cross-college staff development days where various learning and teaching themes

are addressed. Coaching and mentoring of new staff members are given high priority in this institution.

Quality assurance of qualifications

The Level 4 Certificate is the first year of the Diploma awarded by the University, and the Level 5

Certificate is the second year. If these two certificates are done as stand alone qualifications, they are

awarded by City and Guilds, a private quality assurance body.

The leader of the QTLP team at the college’s job is to analyse college trends, national trends and

gather benchmarking data. He also conducts student surveys for information and feedback to staff.

Classroom observations are conducted by his team, whereby lecturers are graded. This grading is then

moderated across colleges using the same criteria that OFSTED, the external moderators use.

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Colleges are subject to an annual review, inspections and peer reviews. They have instituted a robust

self regulation process and regular teaching and learning conferences are held to encourage sharing of

best practices and to update staff on current thinking in FE. To this end, Centres for Excellence in

Teacher Training (CETTS) introduced in April 2007, facilitate the sharing of innovative ideas and

excellent practice through an infrastructure for networking at all levels. In the East Midlands, 22

organisations participate in the East Midlands CETT, of which 11 are FE providers.

Nottingham Trent University Clifton campus

Nottingham Trent University was previously a Technical higher education institute or Polytechnic and

as such is now considered a ‘new university’. This institution offers a more comprehensive range of

undergraduate education programmes than the older research universities such as Nottingham

University. The latter is a higher level academic research institution and offers educator qualifications

(to school teachers) at Level 7 (Masters Level), which made it difficult for them to offer the Level 5

programme to FE college lecturers as it meant offering university programmes at a much lower level

than had previously been the case. The increasing prescriptiveness of standards for FE teacher

training and the trend towards colleges offering their own programmes badged by former polytechnics

have, inter alia, not inspired research universities to continue FE teacher training programmes.

The coordinator of teacher training provision at Nottingham Trent University confirmed that the

University is obliged to design their courses for college lecturers against the LLUK standards which

they regard as quite prescriptive. The standards are aimed at learning to teach in the lifelong learning

sector and the Diploma is offered to full time students. The level 5 qualification is a diploma not a

degree. School teachers doing teacher training at university take the Level 7 degree programme,

hence lecturers who qualify in terms of the LLUK at Level 5 are not easily transferable to school-

teaching and would have to go onto the level 6 CERTED teacher education programme and then to

Level 7. CERTED historically was a qualification in Education for prospective school teachers who

lacked a first degree but which went into decline in the 1980s as degrees became the requirement for

school teaching. This route into teaching has survived for vocational teachers who would usually enter

with a Level 3 vocational award and do the CERTED to get onto the teaching track. The university uses

mentor teachers who are subject experts and have a teaching qualification, to support and guide

students. There is considerable peer mentoring for in-service lecturer trainees.

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University of Nottingham

The University of Nottingham is the leading ranked research university in the East Midlands. Although

such universities have had little involvement in the FE sector historically, Nottingham has a particularly

strong adult education tradition, having the oldest chair in that field in England. It was through its

training of adult educators that Nottingham became involved in provision of a PGCE-equivalent

programme for FE lecturers in the 1990s.

However, as of 2007, Nottingham has discontinued this programme. At the heart of this decision was

the difficulty that a postgraduate-oriented School of Education had with complying with the latest LLUK

regulations. Whilst Nottingham Trent was able to offer the range of programmes outlined above,

Nottingham was unwilling to offer programmes at level 5 as it believed that its teacher training provision

for colleges should continue to align with provision for schools and universities. Such provision is

offered at level 7 and constitutes 1/3 of the credits towards a Masters programme. This is aligned with

current policy statements that seek to move all teachers in the schools sector to Masters graduate

status over time.

Although Nottingham no longer offers initial teacher education in the FE sector, it does continue to offer

MAs and EdDs in this field. As a leading research university, it is well positioned to offer such

programmes and to continue research in the sector. However, there are concerns that its loss of initial

teacher education provision in this area might undermine its “higher” level activities.

Summary of FE lecturer training in England

FE colleges in the UK offer a wide range of full-and part-time courses to learners including school exit

level programmes, university entry level programmes, in-service and professional development training

to employed persons, short and long training programmes to pre-employed and unemployed youth and

adults, certificates and diplomas in an array of disciplines. In this regard the post-compulsory sector or

Lifelong Learning sector as it is called in more recent literature, caters for a vast spectrum of learning

and development needs that potentially exist in a community.

The implication of this is that college lecturers teach in a variety of disciplines and have backgrounds in

industry or more academic contexts, with a combination of vocational and academic qualifications.

While FE in the UK has had a much longer evolution, the drive towards standardisation,

professionalisation of college lecturers and the acquisition of teaching qualifications mirrors similar

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developments in the South African FET scenario. In spite of the many positive developments in

vocational education (in England and South Africa), it is worth noting the concerns signalled by

scholars reflecting on FE policy change, as in the following paragraph.

Recent scholarship on UK vocational education (Simmons & Thompson, 2007; Brand, 2007; Spencely,

2007; Young, 2006) points to the many contestations and challenges which have arisen as a result of

decreased government funding for FET, increased centralisation of curricula, bureaucratic processes,

competing stakeholder interests, too many bodies active in the field and so on, much of which South

African FET practitioners will identify with. Simmons and Thompson (2007) critique the reconfiguration

of the public FE system in order to make it ‘subservient to the perceived needs of the economy’ and all

that this move entails. Tighter financial controls have given rise, they hold, to a new managerialism

where the emphasis is on ‘performance, productivity and cost’ rather than negotiation and trust. With

the cost of training moved from the provider to the trainees and their employers and burdensome

regulatory requirements upon universities, the writers worry that universities could withdraw from FE

lecturer training and thus impoverish the training options available to colleges. This kind of critique,

which may appear harsh, is indicative of the pitfalls emerging systems elsewhere may need to take

cognisance of.

Former polytechnics in the UK which have become the ‘new universities’, have largely carried the

training of teachers in the post-compulsory sector. Through partnership projects with FE colleges the

training of college lecturers has been able to take place at college sites, with the qualification being

quality assured and awarded by the university partner. An alternative source of training has been the

awards offered by colleges under the accreditation of awarding bodies like City and Guilds.

The quality of training provided to FE lecturers came under scrutiny by Ofsted (2003) which voiced

concerns about a lack of pedagogical support for lecturers in their specialist vocational subjects and

that they needed guidance in ‘how to’ teach these. In spite of a concentrated focus on raising the

qualification levels of FE teachers (still in progress), parity with school teacher qualifications has not yet

been attained, and articulation between teaching qualifications for the LL sector achieved at FE

colleges and those attained at universities is limited. Indeed, the decision of research universities (such

as Nottingham) to withdraw from initial teacher education in the sector points to the potential of FE

lecturer training falling further behind in status terms.

Standards have continued to be problematic, issues raised by universities and colleges being too many

outcomes, at the same time too restrictive and too wide-ranging to be useful and so on. These

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challenges will not be unfamiliar to a South African audience but they are instructive for the

qualifications still to be developed for the training of college lecturers. In this regard the recent Danida

research and other international reports on provision of FET lecturer education are valuable in

highlighting experiences from the Danish and European systems.

A snapshot of European and Scandinavian systems

Vocational systems of education and training in Europe and Scandinavia are well established and have

respected traditions. VET (vocational education and training) teachers, as they are called can be either

‘general subject’ teachers with tertiary qualifications who teach in vocational colleges, or vocational

subject teachers who have the requisite vocational qualification and relevant work experience. The

latter then acquire teaching qualifications as a ‘top up’ in-service qualification, though in some

European countries like Germany, France and the Netherlands there are also pre-service vocational

teaching qualifications. Specialist VET teachers choose teaching in vocational settings already at the

outset of their career, much like a school teacher might do, and their qualifications include integrated

vocational subjects and pedagogy or more general education subjects. Much attention is paid to the

subject specialisms that vocational teachers will teach.

In Germany there are examples of a four year university programme that combines vocational subjects,

pedagogy and workplace exposure through industry internships. A strong element of mentoring or

coaching by more experienced colleagues is also evident in this system. It is noteworthy that in Europe

and Scandinavia there appears to be less of the ‘low status’ stigmatisation that applies to vocational

education in South Africa and the UK. Some disparities do arise though, between significant numbers

of professional craftsmen who are employed directly into colleges and whose pay scales may be lower

than their counterparts who are academically qualified as teachers as well.

In the Swedish system potential vocational teachers are also required to have 3 years of work

experience although it is reported that there are sometimes difficulties in recruiting candidates who

satisfy this requirement for particular trade areas. The obvious reason for this is that such persons can

obtain higher salaries in the workplace and are not attracted to the lower salaries in the education

sector. In the Danish system there is a national Institute for the training of in-service vocational

teachers and for conducting related educational research. The training covers a well-rounded spectrum

of pedagogy, theoretical and practical aspects of teaching in a vocational setting, given that teachers

come into the programme already having relevant academic qualifications and in the case of vocational

subject teachers also at least 5 years of appropriate workplace experience. The part-time, modular

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programme is normally conducted over three semesters and all new VET teachers are required to

complete the programme within the first two years of their appointment. Supervised teaching practice is

built into the programme and is undertaken at the college at which the teacher is employed, under the

tutelage of an experienced mentor. Mentoring and supervision by specifically trained mentors is

regarded as an integral part of the development of competent VET teachers.

Conclusion This report shows considerable similarities between the South African and English vocational education

systems, particularly in terms of policy and systems development. While the vocational college system

in the UK has evolved over many years, there still exists familiar debate around the purpose/s of

vocational education, its articulation with higher education, parity of esteem with academic schooling

and the like. College educators in the UK have walked the path that their counterparts in South Africa

are yet to tread with regard to professionalisation demands and standardisation of college teacher

qualifications, increased college autonomy, increasing managerialism, performance management and

so on.

From the aforegoing it is clear that there are many lessons to be learned, experiences to be shared and

pitfalls to be avoided. In addition there are the innovations in vocational teacher development that well-

oiled European systems display, for example, integrated general and vocational subject specific

training programmes and the value of strong mentorship in the workplace for developing good

vocational teachers. South Africa is in the enviable position of being able to plan using the hindsight of

other nations as it designs a robust, rigorous system of educator development for college lecturers that

can take them into the future with confidence. It is imperative that raising the bar for college lecturers is

accompanied by raising the stakes and the rewards associated with a recognised profession. The

professional college lecturer pathway has to become desirable and respected so that new traditions of

teaching for skills development and lifelong may become established.

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References Brand, A. (2007). The long and winding road: professional development in further and higher education. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 31:1,7-16 Department of Education. (2004). Further education and training colleges: The new FET professional - The challenge of staffing and responsiveness in FET colleges. Research report. Fisher, G., Jaff, R., Powell, L. & Hall. G. (2003). Public Further Education and Training colleges, in HSRC (ed.) Human resources development review 2003. Cape Town: HSRC Press. HSRC (Human Sciences Research Council) (2008). Human Resources Development Review 2008: Education, Employment and Skills in South Africa. Cape Town: HSRC Press. Nielsen, S.P. (2002). The experience of the Nordic Countries and Germany. Joint Cedefop-ETF Conference, European Training Foundation, Aalborg. OFSTED (2003) The initial training of further education teachers: a survey. London, Ofsted. OFSTED (2006). The initial training of further education teachers: findings from 2005/6 inspections of courses leading to national awarding body qualifications. London, Ofsted Research report. Pukelis, K. (2002). Vocational Training: Research and Realities. http://www.vdu.lt/Leidiniai/ProfRengimas/2000-4en.html Simmons, R. and Thompson, R.(2007) Aiming higher: how will universities respond to changes in initial teacher training for the post-compulsory sector in England?, Journal of Further and Higher Education, 31:2, 171-182. Spencely, L (2007). Walking into a dark room – the initial impressions of learner-educators in further education and training. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 31:2, 87-96 Young, M. (2006). FET college teachers: a knowledge-based profession of the future. Perspectives in Education. 24(3),153-160

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