Nearly 4,000 college lecturers begin registration with GTC Scotland

Nearly 4,000 college lecturers begin registration with GTC Scotland (@gtcs) as part of the college working group programme

Nearly 4,000 college lecturers from colleges across Scotland will be invited to register with the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTC Scotland) from September 2021.

College lecturers who hold a Teaching Qualification in Further Education (TQFE) or a GTC Scotland recognised Primary or Secondary teaching qualification and have 190 days teaching experience in a college setting with adult learners, are being asked to get ready for registration. College lecturers who are not in this group will be invited to register from April 2022 onwards subject to new GTC Scotland Registration and Standards Rules.

Partnership working across the sector

The registration programme is led by the partnership group, the College Lecturer Registration Working Group (CLRWG), which was tasked with establishing requirements for mandatory registration of college lecturers in Scotland.

The stakeholders in the group – Colleges Scotland, EIS-FELA, GTC Scotland, the Scottish Government and universities offering the TQFE – are committed to ensuring that lecturers in Scotland’s colleges will be registered with GTC Scotland through existing and new routes to registration (as approved by GTC Scotland Council).

Dr Pauline Stephen, Chief Executive and Registrar of GTC Scotland and Chair of the CLRWG, said: “Our focus at GTC Scotland is to support individuals to become, to be and to grow as teaching professionals in Scotland. National rollout of college lecturer registration is not only a milestone in the college lecturer registration programme, but also central to our work to enhance professionalism.”

Larry Flanagan, General Secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), said: “We welcome the national rollout of college lecturer registration, with the first tranche of lecturers registering from September 2021.  College lecturers deserve the status which professional registration brings and the acknowledgement that teaching in a college requires a body of knowledge and the development of skills and experience to deliver vocational and academic qualifications to a diverse range of learners.  We look forward to advancing the work in this area and to completing the roll-out of GTC Scotland registration for all those teaching in the college sector from April 2022 and in so doing, delivering a long-standing EIS-FELA goal.”

Shona Struthers, Chief Executive of Colleges Scotland, said: “Colleges are committed to supporting lecturing staff in their professional development.  This is a historic moment as thousands of lecturers across the country begin the registration process which will support their professionalism and continued development for many years to come, and ultimately enhance the quality of provision available to our students.”

Jamie Hepburn, Minister for Higher and Further Education said: “We value the vital role college lecturers play in the design and delivery of high-quality and accessible learning experiences for our students, and I encourage those who are eligible to be registration ready.”

The pilot project

A pilot registration project ran from November 2020-March 2021 with nearly 400 lecturers registering with GTC Scotland from Dundee and Angus College, Forth Valley College and Glasgow Kelvin College.                                                 

The college lecturer registration programme is being carried out in response to the May and November 2017 National Joint Negotiating Committee Agreements, which require registration of college lecturers with GTC Scotland.

Find out more about the lecturer registration project.