Guidance Maintaining education and skills training provision: further education providers
Supporting teachers to continue to deliver
Bringing more learners into FE settings will present new challenges to
colleges and other providers. They will want to refocus their teaching staff
to support learners to come back into the classroom where this is appropriate
and sustain the online offer that they have developed to continue ongoing
learning since the decision to close educational settings was taken. The
current proposals mean that a relatively small proportion of learners will
return to face to face learning in the first instance and online learning can
continue for the majority of learners.
We know that this move will cause concern for some teachers who are having to
shield or who have family members that are at risk. It is essential that in
all of their planning, colleges and other providers continue to implement PHE
advice on supporting those who are shielding or who are at risk. Teachers who
fall into these categories should continue to be supported to take appropriate
steps to protect themselves and their families including remaining at home
should they need to.
Colleges and other providers will be planning how they can best reintroduce
more learners into their premises alongside those vulnerable learners and
children of key workers who are already present on site. We know that there
will be aspects of provision that cause concern to teachers, for example, use
of limited space in classrooms or workshops for teaching or specific
assessments of learners’ competence. The guidance on social
distancing will help colleges and other providers to make
decisions about how to deploy teachers safely on their premises and to keep
them safe when they are delivering face to face teaching or undertaking
assessments that require practical demonstration.
We are confident that providers will be able to make this transition work for
their learners and staff, so that education can continue to be delivered in
the most effective and safe way. Specific guidance for educational
settings
on social distancing and use of personal protective equipment (PPE) will
continue to be updated and should be used alongside this advice. What is most
important is getting the balance right between the need for learners and
teachers to be present onsite and making the best use of online teaching and
learning. Any additional costs arising from increasing numbers of learners
will be funded from existing college budgets.
Colleges and other providers will also be seeking to recruit new teachers to
fill existing vacancies and support delivery in future. We know that this will
be a challenge in the current circumstances, particularly as teacher
recruitment often includes a demonstration of teaching in the classroom,
however we are confident that providers can find ways to recruit teachers
using online delivery and other assessment methods where appropriate.
Providers can still register for Round 3 of the Taking Teaching Further
programme which is intended to support the
recruitment of industry professionals to teaching roles in the FE sector. For
those seeking support to recruit English, maths or SEND teachers we are still
accepting applications for In-service ITE
grants of £18,200, which are available
directly from the department.
We have also provided advice to FE Initial Teacher Education providers to
mitigate the disruption to teacher training where possible and enable as many
new teachers as possible to complete their training where they have
demonstrated they have met the required standard. This will mean that there
will still be a cohort of newly qualified teachers able to take up employment
for the coming academic year.
Support from your provider associations
Provider associations are also offering information and links to resources via
their websites:

Association of Colleges (AoC) can offer support and advice with questions relating to business continuity at covid19@aoc.co.uk. AoC has also published guidance on governance
Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) has collated guidance and support
Holex has produced a checklist for partially closing or closing an adult education centre
Natspec is updating a regular briefing page
Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA) has an online learning hub with resources that will be updated on a regular basis

[FE]: further education
  [PPE]: personal protective equipment
  [SEND]: special educational needs and disabilities
  [AoC]: Association of Colleges
  [AELP]: Association of Employment and Learning Providers
  [SFCA]: Sixth Form Colleges Association