Adaptation is in further education’s DNA. Policy turbulence is, for us, a constant and we have become expert in responding to it. But what is, in many respects, a virtue, can hold us back, preventing us from being all we can be.

It can be tempting for leaders to focus solely on the day-to-day demands of curriculum change and policy and accountability requirements, or to revert to tried-and-tested coping strategies to keep their organisations afloat during tough times.

Too often, though, constant adaptation to external change, however resourceful, stops us from recognising the mutability of the drivers of that change and engaging purposefully with them.

As the sector comes to terms with area reviews and skills devolution, which are both reshaping FE and skills fundamentally, it is crucially important that we do more than just adapt. We must also get ahead of the reform curve. “Doing” is important - we are the “doers” of the education system - but important also, in leadership, is the capacity to think widely, to reflect on and anticipate change, and, whenever possible, to lead it.

One of the spurs for me when setting up the Further Education Trust for Leadership (FETL) was my concern that colleagues in the sector, caught up in the frantic cycle of demanding change, simply had no time in which to think. That is what FETL aims to provide through our core programmes of research, grants and fellowships.

Think creatively

These challenging developments, such as skills devolution, area reviews and the apprenticeship target also represent opportunities for those who, while keeping a sharp eye on short-term preoccupations, are able also to raise their heads and think boldly and creatively about the future.

That is the leadership that we want to see across the sector and not just institutionally. Leadership that is characterised by creativity, trust, enterprise and agency, that is receptive to new ideas, prizes evidence and expertise, and that thrives on generative collaboration with relevant partners, both within and outside the sector.

Such leadership is challenging, yes. Funding cuts have hit the sector hard and the pressures of policy churn and accountability can result, unhelpfully, in introverted leadership or too great an emphasis on command and control, often at the cost of staff talent, trust and creativity.

Nevertheless, the scale of the change that we face means that inward-looking, myopic leadership is no longer an option. Indeed, it is positively damaging. In the emerging world, sector leaders must find fitting new ways to interact with local organisations, particularly employers; do more to ensure that their offer meets student needs; make better use of technology; and ensure that their voice is heard clearly and consistently in policy-making.

For that to happen, FE’s leaders must be prepared to reach out, both practically and intellectually, and with learning in mind (particularly their own).

This is the theme of FETL’s new collection of essays, which have been published jointly with the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), called Possibility Thinking. The invited contributors considered a wide range of radical possibilities for the future of the sector, imagining how it might develop for the better over the next two decades.

Philippa Cordingley and Paul Crisp, of the Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education, for example, urge the sector to move away from its preoccupation with “glossy marketing” to a self-improving system, one genuinely open about its weaknesses and focused not on “victimhood” but on determining its own future through the leadership of learning.

This represents an important challenge for FE. We must have the confidence to acknowledge our faults while being forceful about the areas in which we should take a lead.

A destination of choice

Vocational pedagogy is an example of an area where FE has the expertise but where politicians have made most of the running.

As Bill Lucas, professor of learning at the University of Winchester, argues in his essay, rather than railing about parity of esteem with academic learning, the sector should focus on generating a set of “unambiguously aspirational outcomes” for vocational education and on supporting teachers in developing teaching and learning methods that meet them. The better outcomes that could result from this would make FE more of a destination of choice and challenge any negative perceptions of the sector.

FE and skills must be bold and daring, self-confident and collaborative in its thinking. Its leaders, to quote the RSA’s Anthony Painter, must become “agitators for change” rather than its anguished object.

We have always been prepared to change. Now we must actively engage as agents of change. To do so, we must not only talk change, but also think about it, with others. Thinking that disrupts, that asks awkward questions and that challenges long-established ways of doing things shouldn’t frighten us. It should be part of the day-to-day life and culture of every provider.

Only our own behaviour and outlook can take us from the risk of public servitude to a return to public service.

This is, after all, what attracted most of us to the sector in the first place.

Dame Ruth Silver is president of the Further Education Trust for Leadership and co-chair of the Skills Commission. Possibility Thinking, a collection of essays on FE, is launched on 5 July

This is an article from the 1 July edition of TES. This week’s TES magazine is available in all good newsagents. To subscribe, click here. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here.

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