A drive to turn mechanics into FE teachers has stalled due to government reluctance to provide funding, bosses have claimed.
The “FE lecturer reservist” trial aims to recruit mechanics and engineers to retrain as teachers so they can teach alongside their industry jobs.
The pilot scheme’s developers, including the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) and Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), hoped to kickstart it in the West Midlands before last year’s general election after winning support from Tory skills minister Luke Hall.
But since Labour came into power, the programme’s creators told FE Week that officials had gone cold on their plan for a pilot that would now cover the whole of the Midlands.
Benjamin Silverstone, skills policy and workforce transformation lead at WMG, said it was proving “very difficult” to get a full-scale pilot off the ground without cross-departmental government “buy-in” – despite skills minister Jacqui Smith being told about the plan in a meeting last month.
He confirmed providers and employers were interested in signing up and the Department for Education “philosophically” liked it, but said it needed financial support from the DfE, Treasury and the Department for Work and Pensions to provide training with a long-lasting impact.
“We know what would have happened,” Silverstone said. “These companies would have volunteered, and then the government probably would turn around and go, ‘if they’re going to volunteer anyway, then why should we put any money into it?’”
The plea for cash comes amid public funding cuts, including in education, that are impacting adult skills budgets and led to the axing of the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge (ASK) careers programme.
But the DfE is desperate for more FE teachers amid the current recruitment crisis. This was underscored last week by a National Audit Office report that found the DfE was unlikely to meet its 6,500-recruitment school and college teacher target. It also estimated between 8,400 and 12,400 FE teachers were needed by 2028/29.
The FE lecturer reservist initiative proposed to reimburse participants up to £400 per day to cover the difference between their substantive salary and the rate paid by the provider. Small- and medium-sized enterprise employers could also claim £500 per month when their reservist employee was teaching.
Silverstone could not confirm how much was needed to get the pilot going.
Meanwhile, West Midlands Combined Authority has fully funded an eight-week “Aspiring Teachers” scheme, run by Dudley College of Technology, which mirrors the reservist scheme.
The college-accredited course covers an introduction to pedagogy, managing behaviour, professional conduct and supporting SEND learners.
Eighteen people have so far completed the programme, and the college has 10 learners in its current cohort.
“To date we have worked with adults from a number of technical areas including electrical engineering and construction and have hopes to expand this further in the new academic year,” said Diana Martin, CEO and principal of Dudley College of Technology.
The DfE was approached for comment.
Your thoughts