This article focuses on lecturers in further education (FE) colleges, and on essential skillstutors who may work in FE colleges, training providers or in other organisations receiving government funding to deliver essential skills.

All teachers in FE colleges are required to hold an approved teaching qualification, as set out in The Further Education Teachers’ (Eligibility) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007, as amended. More detailed information is given below.

Workplace assessors assess skills and knowledge acquired on the job. They are trained in the assessment approach required for the award of a qualificatIon, but do not necessarily deliver any teaching. Specific qualifications for workplace assessors include Level 3 awards and certificates in assessing competences and achievement. They also include Level 4 certificates and awards in internal and external quality assurance of assessment processes and practices. This article does not deal further with workplace assessors.

The Department for the Economy (DfE) is responsible for setting the minimum qualification requirements to teach in the further education (FE) sector in Northern Ireland. Specific requirements are set out in circulars in accordance with The Further Education Teachers’ (Eligibility) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007, as amended:

1. Circular ES01/12 sets out the minimum qualification requirements for essential skills tutors who deliver programmes in literacy, numeracy and ICT;
2. Circular FE01/12 sets out the minimum qualifications required to teach other subjects in FE colleges.

All essential skills tutors, along with all lecturers who teach for more than eight hours a week, must have an approved teaching qualification.

These teaching qualifications can be obtained through pre-service or in-service training.

The pre-service qualifications which are recognised to teach in further education (FE) colleges in Northern Ireland are:

• Bachelor’s degrees in education and the Northern Ireland Post Graduate Diploma in Further and Higher Education (PGDFHE) (Level 6 qualifications),
• the Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), the Northern Ireland Post Graduate Certificate in Further and Higher Education (PGCFHE), and the Northern Ireland Post Graduate Certificate in Education (Further Education) (PGCE (FE)) (Level 7 qualifications).

The in-service training requirement is usually the two-year Post Graduate Certificate in Education (Further Education) (PGCE (FE)) offered by the University of Ulster. This has to be completed part-time within the first three years of appointment. (The first year of the course has to be completed within the first year of appointment; the second year must be successfully completed over the next two years.)

Historical note: The requirement for FE lecturers to have a teaching qualification was first introduced in 1994 as a one-year Post Graduate Certificate in Further and Higher Education (PGCFHE), equivalent to master’s level.

Reform of qualifications framework H3

Further Education Means Success, the overarching strategy for the further education (FE) sector in Northern Ireland includes the ‘Policy Commitment – Embedding High Quality Teaching’ (page 12):

‘Through a new teacher education framework, there will be a renewed focus on high quality initial teacher education and continual professional development for all lecturing staff, with minimum standards for pedagogy and subject qualifications put in place'.

A Programme for Implementation of the strategy, published in March 2016, stated that the new teacher education framework would be introduced by June 2018. At the time of writing, May 2019, the new framework is not in place.

Article last reviewed April 2021.