Around 800 of Scotland’s college lecturers have now joined the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) register - with 400 having done so as part of pilot projects at Dundee and Angus, Forth Valley and Glasgow Kelvin colleges.
Nearly 4,000 lecturers are due to start the registration process with Scotland’s teaching register in August. The programme is being undertaken by the College Lecturer Registration Working Group (CLRWG), which was tasked with establishing requirements and pathways for mandatory registration of college lecturers in Scotland. The pilot registration project began registering lecturers from the three colleges in November 2020.
At the time, then GTCS chief executive Ken Muir said formal registration would give college lecturers the professionalism and status many FE staff have been wanting.
“It is about giving lecturers a status and a professionalism many of them have been looking for,” Mr Muir told Tes.
Today’s news comes weeks after unions and employers in Scotland’s FE sector reached an agreement over the role of lecturers. Members of the EIS-FELA union had taken strike action after what they said were plans by Scotland’s college leaders to replace lecturers with lower-paid, less-qualified roles. Employers said there was no such plan.
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Dr Pauline Stephen, chief executive and registrar of the GTCS and chair of the CLRWG, said: “Collaboration in the college sector has been key to the success of the pilot registration project and will continue to be vital in enhancing college lecturer professionalism in Scotland.
GTCS registration for college lecturers in Scotland
“I would like to take the opportunity to thank the pilot colleges and lecturers. Their feedback has been indispensable to helping ensure our systems and processes are optimised for the roll-out of registration across the college sector.”
Larry Flanagan, EIS teaching union general secretary, said: “The EIS welcomes the registration of almost 400 college lecturers in the three pilot colleges as a major step in advancing GTC Scotland registration for all lecturers in Scotland’s colleges and in delivering a long-standing EIS-FELA goal.
“Over the last year, college lecturers have risen to the challenges the sector has faced, seeking to support students in this most difficult period. They deserve the professional recognition which registration brings and the acknowledgement that teaching in a college requires a body of knowledge and the development of skills and experience to deliver vocational and academic qualifications to a diverse range of learners.
“We now look forward to advancing the roll-out of GTC Scotland registration for all those teaching in the college sector.”
Shona Struthers, chief executive of Colleges Scotland, said: “Colleges in Scotland are committed to supporting lecturers in the sector. This pilot project is an important milestone towards ensuring that all lecturing staff in colleges are professionally registered, which will ultimately enhance the quality of provision available to students across the country.
“We are pleased to see the good progress that has been made with the three pilot colleges to date and look forward to professional registration being rolled out nationally.”
