How many college lecturers do you know who came into the sector for money? I, personally, can’t think of many. The stories Tes has often reported on are about the lack of money - the plight of sessional lecturers and those on zero-hour contracts, and part-time lecturers struggling to make ends meet.
Among full-time teaching staff in colleges, the latest data from the Education and Training Foundation shows average pay has decreased by 0.6 per cent from £32,500 in 2017-18 to £32,300 in 2018-19.
This week, meanwhile, we learned that school teachers, by comparison, will receive a 3.1 per cent pay increase this year - meaning that they could, on average, earn about £9,000 a year more than their peers in FE. And let’s not forget that English college teacher pay is also significantly below that of Scotland’s college teachers.
News: FE and schools pay gap to rise to over £9,000 per year
Background: FE workforce data shows college teacher pay down
More: ‘We’re the experts - and we should be paid as such’
The status of FE
Incidentally, considering many of us will still have Gavin Williamson’s speech on the future of FE fresh in our minds, a teacher at the German equivalent of an FE college, the Berufsschule, in the country’s biggest “land”, earns around 52,000 euros a year (about £47,800 at current exchange rates).
There are a number of problems with this - and with FE commonly being left behind when pay increases for teachers are announced in England. First, there is that old chestnut of the status of FE compared with that of schools. Can anyone really, in all seriousness, imply that FE teachers are valued in the same way if they are worth, in a literal sense, more than 20 per cent less? Of course, lecturer pay is agreed by individual colleges - but they can pay their staff only what they have at their disposal.
Second, the FE sector needs to attract, and retain, staff. In his speech, Williamson spoke about the need for “great people” teaching in colleges, and the importance of industry experience. “We need to do more to encourage great people to teach in our great colleges - and to give colleges the ability to reward them properly,” he said. Inevitably, attracting those “great people” would be much easier with “great” pay.
The college sector is full of teachers who turned to it for reasons beyond pay, of course. College teachers are older than their peers in school - the average FE teacher is aged 45 - with many coming into FE after a career in industry. Their reasons will vary: some were looking for a change in pace, others for a steady income away from a more volatile economy.
And then there is idealism, of course: I am sure plenty of those teaching in colleges came into the profession out of a sense of wanting to do good and change people’s lives. And they do, on a daily basis.
The challenge of teaching in FE
But the life-changing character of FE also adds to the challenge of being an FE teacher - and post-pandemic, that will be more acutely the case than ever. The students are an incredibly diverse cohort, from 16-year-old school leavers to much older returners, and people of all ages who face challenges away from campus most of us can only imagine. It takes a special person to teach in FE.
And the job is only going to get harder: blended learning is due to continue in the new academic year at least in some form, and that means teachers face new challenges. Inevitably, a UK economy in trouble will drive many more towards the college sector who need support - some will have been away from education for decades and would have never imagined they would darken the doors of a classroom again.
This is where we come full circle: knowing that a teacher in FE is paid less, and by implication valued less, than others (both in schools and, in many cases, in industry) will not only affect whether someone will be attracted to a career in FE - it also seriously harms morale. As we face an uncertain autumn, that is the very last thing we need. And, more importantly, it is the very last thing students need.
