FE Charter welcomes Furness College into Membership

Lord Lingfield, Chairman of the Chartered Institution for Further Education, today announced the next organisation to achieve Membership. He said:

“Furness College have passed a rigorous process which has confirmed their position as a leading performer in the sector.  I look forward to working with them and our growing Membership to begin driving forward professionalism in further education.  This is the next step along the path to recognising and celebrating what the sector does well, and achieving for it a status both nationally and internationally equivalent to that enjoyed by our higher education colleagues.”  

Mark Nicholson, Deputy Principal Curriculum & Quality at Furness College, said this was a significant achievement for the College:

“I’m grateful to the local employers including BAE Systems and Siemens Subsea and CN Group, for their support in this application.  It reflects the way we work with the people in our community to deliver the services they and our learners need.   We join the three other organisations who have so far succeeded in achieving this status.  This mark of quality is awarded only to high performing organisations and demonstrates how we are helping lead the way in how the further education sector will be shaped to meet the demands of the future.”

NOTES FOR EDITORS

The Institution for Further Education was granted Chartered status in October 2015.  It opened its doors to members in November 2015, the following month.

2.The Chartered Institution is devoted to developing the potential, reputation and standing of the further education sector.  Its mission is to bring together the best training providers across the sector and collectively to promote, recognise and celebrate their professionalism and success.  Those who are doing this well should be properly recognised and celebrated, while those doing it less well should be encouraged to do better and set a goal to which they could aspire.  The whole-organisational focus of the Chartered Institution is complementary to that of the sector-owned Education and Training Foundation, which focuses on building the professionalism and skills of the people in the sector.

3.The chartered status project was conceived against a background of the then government’s recognition, reflecting key themes in reports such as “New Challenges, New Chances” and “Rigour and Responsiveness in Skills”, of the need for greater autonomy for FE institutions so that they could get on with serving their students, employers and their local communities, and improving the quality of their offer.  

4.Colleges and training providers with an overall Grade 1 or 2 in their most recent Ofsted inspection and in receipt of public funding from the Skills Funding Agency are eligible to apply for Membership.  They will need to demonstrate as part of the application process that they can meet the Institution’s quality standards.  

5.Applications will be reviewed in order to ensure they meet the required standards.  The fee for review will be a non-refundable £3,000 and the  annual full-year Membership subscription is set at £5000.     

6.Colleges and training providers interested in Membership should visit http://www.fecharter.org.uk/membership/ where further information is available.

7.For further information please email [email protected] or call 020 7976 0522