The changing role of the FE lecturer

During the past 25 years colleges of further education have existed in a market where their output has been in increasing demand and where they have usually had a monopoly of local supply. As a result most colleges have maintained the same role, but expanded in number and size to meet this increasing demand. At the same time external supportive agencies such as schools, industry, commerce, Regional Advisory Councils, Examination Boards, professional bodies and Industrial Training Boards have continued to provide courses, students, entry standards, syllabuses, advice on a number of hours devoted to each subject, as well as setting, marking or assessing examinations, awarding qualifications, etc. Although students change each year, in this environment of an “expanding steady state” the work of many lecturers in further education has often become prescriptive and even mechanical.