Chairs of college governing boards should be paid for their role, the further education commissioner has said.

Speaking at the Association of Colleges’ (AoC) annual conference in Birmingham, Richard Atkins said the amount of work done by many college chairs was “embarrassing” and the role was significantly more work-intensive than other voluntary roles in, for example, the schools sector.

He said he had, therefore, “changed his mind” and college chairs should be public appointments and should be remunerated “in some way”.

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“I keep making that point to the Department [for Education],” Mr Atkins said. “I think the mood might be slightly shifting on that.”

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He said he did not want to move to a Scottish model, where regional college chairs are appointed by the government and are paid for their post - and would be concerned by individual civil servants choosing chairs for FE institutions.

Mr Atkins was speaking in a session on healthy college leadership and governance, which revealed the challenges faced by many college governors and chairs. It also highlighted the fact that the FE commissioner’s team had engaged with colleges where the board was unaware of issues arising or unable to address financial problems.

Mr Atkins said training for chairs and other board members should be formalised and expanded, in order to address this.

Yesterday, the conference heard of how borrowing costs for colleges have rocketed in the wake of recent insolvencies.