Throughout my career, whether at the Department for Education or as chief executive of the Education and Training Foundation, I have spoken to so many brilliant people in a wide range of FE settings. This means that I find it very hard not to evangelise about the range of qualities that teachers and trainers bring to our learning environments.

This is not an odd occurrence or unusual for anyone who works in FE to do: we are an immensely proud sector. However, a common surprise often crops up in my conversations with people who are not so familiar - the fact that there is no regulation about what qualifications are needed to work as an FE teacher, trainer or assessor.

It is also unusual that there hasn’t been a creation of a universally understood recognised status of practitioner and chartered practitioner that teachers can aspire to, be assessed against and achieve. Thankfully, this is changing.

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In FE, there are many creative tensions about who we are and what we do, which come from the huge diversity of the sector itself. On the flip-side there are also common emergent themes in FE about what makes effective practice, and what teachers should focus on and be able to do well in order to feel confident in their practice. These are codified in the professional standards for teachers and trainers, which form the basis for HE-based initial teacher education, and for qualified teacher learning and skills (QTLS), the sector’s post-qualifying professional status.

QTLS is not the end of the professional journey though: far from it. Every profession needs ladders of progression to aspire to and achieve, and FE teaching is no exception. Over the past few years the ladders of progression for teachers and trainers have either diversified or become altogether broken. Diversity can provide great strength, of course, but when it comes to career progression, every professional needs a clearly defined national standard of mastery they can understand, aspire to and be recognised for.

To fill that space for FE, in 2017 the ETF developed and launched advanced teacher status (ATS), the badge of advanced professionalism and mastery in FE, conferred by our professional membership body, the Society for Education and Training (SET). Through working closely with colleagues at the Chartered College of Teaching, we have built a joined-up process whereby those who achieve ATS are also automatically conferred chartered teacher status (CTeach), the new national cross-sector standard of recognised teaching excellence.

Achieving CTeach 

A week or so ago, the first 52 ATS holders graduated with CTeach at the Chartered College of Teaching’s inaugural graduation event. The graduation also saw the first 98 school teachers in the country to be awarded the CTeach. This event should instil confidence across the whole FE sector and make us all proud. These first ATS holders come from across the whole diverse FE sector and have shown high levels of mastery, dedication and professionalism.

Achieving these standards is not easy - they are a huge challenge and opportunity for advanced practitioners. Chartered teacher status is deliberately aimed at those who aspire to be at the top of their profession and demonstrate mastery in what they do. The rich positive feedback from the first successful ATS cohorts is a testament to how it has further inspired, challenged, developed and rewarded them.

Senior leaders responsible for teaching and learning and HR directors should be planning now which of their highly valued staff they are going to support through this process next year. The ultimate beneficiaries of this process will of course be the students and learners, and the institutions that employ these expert staff.

Every single teacher and trainer who became a chartered teacher last week should be held aloft as a true everyday champion of our profession. We should all be immensely proud of them.

David Russell is the chief executive at the education and training foundation