Until the late 1990s, teacher training for lecturing staff in the further
education sector (FE) was largely unregulated by government. A
voluntarist environment had led to a position in which, whilst FE staff
were often qualified in professions or occupations as diverse as the
sector itself, only around 40 per cent of them had taken a formal course
of teacher training.2
This position was similar to that often characterised
as typical of some universities in which a capability in teaching is seen as
something to be picked up informally through subject expertise and
experience, with the support of colleagues.3
2.2 As FE came to be seen as more central to the nation’s economic and
social wellbeing, government intervention grew. In 1999, two years into
the life of the Labour government, employer-led occupational standards
for FE lecturers were introduced by the national training organisation,
FENTO. In 2001, regulations were made to compel all FE lecturers to
gain a nationally-recognised teaching qualification.