There is a range of roles and job titles linked to teaching in the adult and further education and training sector in Northern Ireland. These include teachers, trainers, lecturers and tutors who may work for different types of education and training provider, and who may teach across a wide range of academic and vocational areas, and from essential skills through to degree or higher level qualifications. They are often referred to as ‘dual professionals’, being skilled as both teachers and technical professionals in their own right.This article focuses on lecturers, principal lecturers and Heads of Department in further education (FE) colleges, and on essential skills tutors. Essential skills tutors may work in FE colleges, training providers or in other organisations receiving government funding to deliver essential skills (literacy, numeracy and ICT).
Employment status
Teachers in the adult and further education and training sector are not civil servants and do not have guaranteed employment at any stage of their professional life. They must apply for specific posts. Employers advertise their vacant posts and select and appoint suitably qualified staff.
Teachers may work in a range of contexts including:
- further education colleges
- private training providers
- work-based learning settings
- prison and offender learning institutions.
Pay and conditions of service for lecturers employed in further education (FE) colleges are negotiated centrally through the Lecturers’ Negotiating Committee (LNC). See 'National agreements on pay and conditions' below for further information.
Recruitment and appointment
Employers are responsible for recruitment and appointment procedures. The process involves advertising vacant posts, shortlisting suitably qualified candidates, and a panel of trained interviewers interviewing applicants. There are minimum qualification requirements for further education (FE) lecturers (see the article on ‘Initial Education’), but employers have the discretion to set criteria beyond the minimum when recruiting staff.
Individual FE colleges usually advertise vacant posts under grades including lecturer, principal lecturer and Head of Department, and the college selects and appoints suitably qualified staff. The employer of FE staff is the governing body of the college in which they work.Lecturers may work in full-time roles or in ‘fractional’ (part-time) roles. Some teachers in the sector teach in their field whilst continuing to work in their profession or trade. In this way, they maintain up-to-date technical/professional knowledge which can enhance their teaching. Part-time lecturers are often called ‘associate lecturers’. Appointments to associate lecturer roles are made at the discretion of the governing body.
Probation
A one-year probationary period applies to all newly appointed FE college lecturers. This includes those who transfer into the sector having previously gained a school or university teaching qualification, or a professional training qualification. Probationary periods do not apply to temporary or fixed-term contracts of less than 12 months. The lecturer is given a mentor (usually their line manager) to support and guide their development. A report is completed at four-monthly intervals and areas for improvement and specific actions are identified. The NI FE lecturers' probation scheme (2009) provides further information.
Qualification requirements
The Department for the Economy (DfE) determines the minimum qualification requirements for essential skills tutors and lecturers employed in further education (FE) colleges. All must have an approved teaching qualification.
In terms of general qualification requirements, all lecturers and essential skills tutors must have a GCSE Grade A*-C qualification in English and maths (or an equivalent qualification).
Essential skills tutors are required to have a bachelor’s degree, in which the subject they plan to teach forms a minimum of 50% of the subject studied. For example, tutors of ‘essential skills literacy’ must have a degree in which English forms a minimum of 50% of the subject studied.
Lecturers in other subjects in FE colleges must have either:
- a bachelor’s degree in the specialist area in which they plan to teach; or
- three years’ relevant industrial, professional or business experience, and a qualification in the specialist area they wish to teach, such as a short first cycle qualification, e.g. a foundation degree.
It is the responsibility of employers to ensure that their staff are appropriately qualified for their role.For further information on the framework of qualifications for lecturers and essential skills tutors, see the article on ‘Initial Education’.
Professional standards
The 2009 Professional Standards define what is expected of lecturers, teachers, tutors and trainers working in adult and further education (FE) and skills. They are intended to underpin the teaching qualifications for the sector and lecturers’ ongoing development. They define professional knowledge and understanding, and professional practice, in six domains:
- professional values and practice
- learning and teaching
- specialist learning and teaching
- planning for learning
- assessment for learning
- access and progression.
Registration
There is currently no requirement for the professional registration of FE lecturers or essential skills tutors. However, the 2016 Further Education Means Success strategy proposes establishing a system of registration and professional support for further education (FE) lecturers (page 52). At the time of writing, June 2019, nothing further has been announced.
Pending the successful passage of legislation, this registration would be with the General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland (GTCNI), which would become the independent regulator and professional voice of FE lecturers. The GTCNI is already responsible for the registration and regulation of teachers working in grant-aided schools.
National agreements for FE lecturers
Pay and conditions of service for lecturers employed in FE colleges are negotiated centrally through the Lecturers’ Negotiating Committee (LNC). This represents the six FE colleges across Northern Ireland, and comprises members of lecturers’ professional associations. The main professional associations which represent the interests of further education staff are:
- the University and College Union (UCU), which also represents staff in higher education institutions (HEIs);
- the National Education Union (NEU), which also represents teachers, managers and support staff in schools, and staff in HEIs;
- Unison, whose members include staff in schools and institutions of further and higher education, including support staff, along with staff in children’s and careers services.
The national agreements negotiated through the LNC are ’incorporated terms of contract’, which are used by colleges in their own employment contracts with staff. The terms of contract for full and part-time / associate lecturers are available in the ‘NI FE lecturers’ contract, May 11’. There is a separate nationally agreed contract for hourly paid lecturers, the ‘NI FE part-time lecturers’ contract, May 11’. Their rate of pay varies depending on the type and level of the courses taught. The national agreements are available on the UCU website; the main agreements relating to pay and condition of service are summarised below.
Working time
Under the FE Lecturers' Contract, May 11, full-time lecturers are normally expected to work 36 hours per week, Monday to Friday inclusive, over a maximum of 1440 hours per year. A maximum of 828 of the 1440 hours can be student contact time; the remaining time is for other, associated duties. The working year runs from 1 September to 31 August.
The maximum weekly student contact time for lecturers is 25 hours, although they may not have 25 hours of student contact time for more than 18 weeks in any academic year. For the remainder of the academic year, lecturers may be required to undertake a maximum of 24 hours per week of student contact time until the annual maximum 828 hours is complete.
Duties included in student contact time include:
- formal contact with students in classrooms, workshops, laboratories, and studios,
- tutorials with individuals or groups of students,
- supervision or support to students in classrooms, workshops, and learning resource or other centres, including employers’ premises,
- student assessment,
- pre-/post-entry student interviews,
- invigilation and supervision of exams and tests,
- welfare counselling.
Other, associated duties can include:
- preparation and marking
- quality related tasks
- course co-ordination and meetings
- administration and marketing
- continuing professional development
- employer and school visits.
The full-time working year for principal lecturers and Heads of Department is 1541 hours. They have a range of management duties in relation to their area of responsibility and this may include some student contact.
Salary scales
Salary scales for FE lecturers are published on the University and College Union (UCU) website. The latest information published shows that salaries for full-time lecturers from 1 September 2014 were in the range £22,609 (€26,183)* to £32,778 (€37,959)*.
*Exchange rate used: €1 = £0.86, ECB 13 May 2019
On recruitment, successful candidates are placed on a point on the salary scale commensurate with their qualifications and experience.
Lecturers on the main pay scale may receive allowances for certain leadership and management responsibilities. Lecturer roles may attract one or more such responsibility allowances up to a maximum of four. The document ‘NI FE award of responsibility allowances’ provides further information.
Full-time permanent lecturers who have completed at least one year at the top of their pay scale may be eligible for a ‘threshold point’. To be awarded this additional salary payment, they need to provide satisfactory evidence that they meet the four agreed threshold criteria:
- effective professional development,
- teaching and assessment of learning,
- contribution to raising standards through student achievement,
- supporting and working with other staff.
Eligible lecturers must also demonstrate that they have been working broadly at these standards for the past three years. Lecturers who have five or more years’ service at a particular college can apply for the threshold point on reaching the top of their pay scale, i.e. they do not have to complete a year at the top of this scale before applying.
Further information is available in the ‘NI FE lecturers’ threshold training manual’.
Holidays, other paid leave and pensions
Paid holiday entitlement is also determined by the FE lecturers’ contract agreed by the Lecturers’ Negotiating Committee. A full-time, permanent lecturer, for example, is entitled to 49 days’ paid leave each leave year, plus bank holidays or public holidays. Principal lecturers and Heads of Department are entitled to 35 days’ annual leave (plus bank holidays or public holidays). Full details are provided in the ‘NI FE lecturers’ contract, May 11’ on the UCU website.
Maternity, paternity and adoption leave, along with sickness leave, are also covered in the FE agreements for Northern Ireland.
FE lecturers are members of the Northern Ireland Teachers’ Pension Scheme (NITPS), which is also for school teachers.
Article last reviewed April 2021.