A good board that provides the right levels of scrutiny and support is vital to a college’s success.
But through my work as a national leader of governance and on external board reviews, it is clear many boards struggle to recruit governors and find it particularly hard to ensure that boards reflect the diverse make-up of their communities.
There are six main challenges when it comes to recruiting FE college governors.
Limited awareness and understanding of the role
Many potential candidates are unfamiliar with what governance in FE entails, which deters them from applying. Unlike school governance, which is widely recognised, FE governance is often less visible to the public.
Attracting skilled and experienced candidates
A good board has a wide skillset and should include financial acumen, legal expertise, HR experience, strategic planning capability and industry knowledge. There are also college-specific needs – a college serving rural communities needs governors with experience and knowledge of land-based and estates challenges and opportunities, while a college in a locality with a dominant industry or business needs a governor with specific knowledge of that area.
Finding individuals who possess the skills and can commit their valuable time voluntarily can be difficult. This can be particularly challenging in rural areas where the pool of potential governors can be much smaller.
Time commitment and workload
FE governorship demands significant time and effort. Governors should attend meetings fully prepared, having read meeting packs sometimes over 250 pages long. They’re also expected to review reports, engage with stakeholders and contribute to strategic planning. The level of responsibility – and liability – can be daunting, particularly for those with busy careers and family commitments. It is not unusual for new governors to find the workload overwhelming and leave after a few months.
Diversity and representation
Ensuring diversity is another major challenge. The FE sector clearly serves a broad demographic, including young people, adult learners and those from different socio-economic backgrounds and ethnically diverse communities. However, boards often lack representation from women, ethnic minorities and people with lived experience of FE. Undoubtedly, this under-representation can hinder a board’s ability to reflect and respond to the needs of its community. But some colleges don’t take board diversity seriously enough. I was told by one chair that the board ‘had diversity sorted’ as 50 per cent of his governors were women. The board, full of university-educated professionals, had no representation from the ethnically diverse communities the college served. Group-think was also an issue– there was only one perspective on the board and challenge suffered accordingly.
Competition with other sectors
There is stiff competition for governance roles across different sectors, including schools, charities and corporate boards. We must compete with these opportunities, many of which offer greater prestige, better networking opportunities or even financial incentives.
Recruitment processes and support
So, there any many challenges – but we don’t help ourselves. Too many colleges struggle with outdated or ineffective processes. Too often vacancies are not advertised widely enough, and the application and onboarding processes are overly complicated and bureaucratic. There are some great recruitment companies who work particularly well in the sector, but if cost is an issue, as it often is, it’s always worth talking to fellow governors about their own networks – or using LinkedIn to find suitable candidates.
Additionally, inadequate support and training for new governors can lead to high turnover rates, as individuals feel unprepared or exhausted by the role’s demands. Chairs have key roles to play in supporting and easing governors in, particularly around the lexicon and language of FE which can be impenetrable to those new to the sector.
I observed a board meeting last year in which a student governor without a meeting pack sat for over two hours looking completely bemused. No help was offered.
Recruitment of student governors brings its own challenges – working around timetables, part-time jobs and lack of confidence and board experience – but good student governors bring invaluable perspectives which include lived experience.
But the time commitment and challenges of governorship are worthwhile. Governors develop new skills, gain leadership experience, expand professional networks – and most importantly, help impact students’ lives. Seeing students succeed due to well-governed institutions is a powerful motivation for many governors, as is the knowledge that in helping to provide a pipeline of talent for local organisations, they’re also helping to improving the community their college serves.
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