Recruit an FE governor
Source: gov.uk (2025-06-25)

Explains the process that further education (FE) colleges should follow when recruiting new governors through the FE Governor Recruitment Service.

Overview

The FE Governor Recruitment Service (https://governorsforschools.org.uk/fe/) helps college corporations and designated institutions to strengthen the skills and diversity mix of their boards by identifying well-qualified candidates to fill key governor roles.

Who can use this service

The service is available to:
- FE corporations
- sixth-form college corporations
- designated institutions
Criteria for using the service

To meet the criteria for using the service, you’ll need to have at least one of the following:
- a difficulty in filling the role of chair, deputy chair or committee chair
- a significant skills gap on your governing board
- a significant need to increase diversity on your governing board
- a strong recommendation from a recent external review to recruit to a key governor role
Prioritising cases for referral

We will prioritise your nomination for referral to the service if your:
- college is in serious difficulty, for example, in intervention
- college or governing board already receives support from our FE commissioner team, Department for Education (DfE) place based teams (PBTs), national leaders of further education (NLFEs) or national leaders of governance (NLGs)
- circumstances or location make it difficult to recruit the governors you need
What the service provides

The service will provide a bespoke end-to-end service for governing boards including:
- helping with the person specification
- undertaking a proactive search for candidates
- shortlisting the best candidates for interview
- supporting boards through the appointment and induction process
How to access the service

You will need a referral from DfE to access the service. The nomination process will start in one of 2 ways:
- we will nominate college corporations and designated institutions where we identify a need
- you can nominate your own college by completing our FE governor recruitment service nomination form (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/685525785fd5c3b3068d28d5/Nomination_for_referral_to_the_FE_Governor_Recruitment_Service.docx) (MS Word Document, 73 KB) and emailing it back to us at xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx)
How DfE will make a nomination

Nominations for referral may be made by:
- the FE commissioner team
- PBTs
- NLGs
- NLFEs
We will:
- explain why we are recommending you use the service
- explain which vacancy is under consideration
- explain how the process will work
- ask your chair and governance professional to confirm their consent to proceed
- include contact details for the chair and the governance professional in the nomination
- ask your chair and governance professional to complete our form
How you can nominate your college

If you meet our criteria for using the service (#criteria-for-using-the-service), you can nominate your college via our dedicated mailbox.

Before nominating your organisation, you must have the consent of your governing board. Contact details for the board chair and governance professional must be included on the nomination form.

The forms asks you to:
- explain why you need to use this service
- explain how your vacancy meets the criteria
- include any information relevant to the prioritisation of your case (#prioritise)
Next steps

We will assess all nominations against our criteria for using the service (#criteria-for-using-the-service).

We will notify boards and nominators of the outcome. If your case has been approved for referral, we will check that you wish to proceed.

When the FE Governor Recruitment Service receives your referral from us, they will contact you directly to explain how the service works.