IfL outlines five-year plan

The Council of the Institute for Learning (IfL) has announced its first five-year strategy after a period of consultation with its members.

Its new long-term plan outlines how the professional body will work with its more than 180,000 members of teachers, trainers and assessors to make a positive impact on the sector.

Defining the plan at its launch, IfL chair Sue Crowley said: “This strategy sets out our vision, our values, our guiding principles and the strategic aims on which we will focus during the next five years. Our vision is simple and ambitious: that our members will be served well by IfL and that practitioners will be truly recognised for excellent teaching and training for learners.

“Underpinning our vision is a set of values, which we have developed with and for our members: professionalism, development, autonomy, integrity and equality. Our strategy covers what we believe the public and learners across the very diverse FE and skills sector, including adult and work-based learning, expect of a professional body for their teachers and trainers.”

Toni Fazaeli, chief executive, said: “IfL has an important role to play in contributing to and sustaining the lifelong learning workforce. IfL gives members the opportunity to share and learn from their individual and collective experiences as teachers and trainers, as this offers individual professional development and the fostering of a wider professional community. For example, we are going to help members share information about how they are working with individuals and companies hit by the economic downturn.

“Continuing professional development is vital for strengthening our members’ dual professionalism – experts in their subject or vocational area and in teaching and training methods – and is at the heart of our strategy. By raising members’ professional status and giving them a louder voice in policymaking too, we aim to ensure that teachers, trainers and assessors across FE and skills are accorded the esteem they deserve.

“I am enormously grateful to all those members who have contributed to our five-year strategy. I am confident that together we can achieve change and improvement for teachers and trainers and learners – and that our members will have reason to be proud of their professional body.”