April 22, 2025
What Leadership Pathways Are There For Further Education Teachers?
Ready to use your Further Education (FE) teaching expertise in a new leadership role? Whether your next step is a position that combines teaching with leadership responsibilities or a senior position out of the classroom, there are various leadership pathways to reach your dream role. No matter which route you choose, effective leadership in FE is built on strong coaching and mentoring abilities, which are skills you can start developing right now.
Leadership Roles in FE
Most successful leaders build their careers step by step, developing new skills and responsibilities along the way. While exact titles and structures can vary between colleges, there are common career progression paths to FE leadership:
Team Leader
The team leader role is usually the first step into leadership for many FE teachers. You will maintain substantial teaching responsibilities while developing your leadership capabilities and demonstrating your potential for further progression. You’ll coordinate a small group of subject-specific teachers, ensure consistency in teaching approaches, mentor colleagues, and contribute to curriculum development.
Curriculum Manager
As a middle leader, you’ll take broader responsibility for entire subject areas or course portfolios. You’ll oversee curriculum design across multiple courses, lead larger teams, manage resources and budgets, monitor quality assurance, and develop relationships with employers and stakeholders.
Head of Department
When you lead a department, you’ll oversee multiple curriculum areas and make important strategic decisions. You’ll spend less time teaching and more time guiding your team and contributing to college-wide initiatives. You’ll set the departmental vision (aligned with the institutional strategy), manage performance across various teams, allocate significant budgets, implement quality improvement, and contribute to the college policies.
Deputy or Vice Principal
As part of the senior leadership team, you’ll have institution-wide responsibilities supporting the principal. You’ll help set and bring about the institutional vision, lead major college functions, represent the institution externally, manage significant portions of the budget, and lead major change initiatives.
Principal or CEO
As the top leader in an FE institution, you’ll set the vision and direction for the entire college. You’ll manage complex funding, work with regulators, ensure excellent education provision, hold accountability for performance, lead the senior management team, work with governors, and represent the college externally at the highest levels.
Skills Needed for FE Leadership Success
Whether you’re planning your career progression in FE, or just starting out in FE leadership, you will need to take hold of your professional learning and create a plan for your career development. The main areas to focus on include:
- Communication and Relationship-Building: Leaders must set clear expectations, give constructive feedback, and engage many stakeholders, from students to professional bodies.
- Coaching and Mentoring: Leaders need to develop others and achieve institutional objectives by inspiring a collaborative approach.
- Strategic Planning and Decision-Making: FE leaders must analyse complex educational, financial, and political landscapes to make the right choices for their learners.
- Financial and Resource Management: Management must be able to balance short-term necessities with long-term sustainability.
Leadership Pathways For Further Education Teachers
You will need a combination of formal qualifications, targeted skills development, and practical leadership experience to prove that you are equipped with the right skills and knowledge to step up. There are different education leadership courses you can do, and you may do a combination of them:
Education & Training Foundation Courses
The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) provides specialised leadership development programs for FE teachers. These include the ‘Stepping into Leadership’ programme, the ‘Middle Management Development’ programme and the ‘Strategic Leadership’ programme.
Postgraduate Qualifications
You can complete postgraduate qualifications where you will explore structured theoretical frameworks and research-informed approaches to educational and organisational leadership. These qualifications include postgraduate certificates in Educational Leadership, a Master’s in Educational Leadership and Management, or even a Doctorate in Education.
Professional Coaching & Mentoring Qualifications
Coaching and mentoring qualifications will develop your ability to bring out the best in your staff and colleagues by making them feel supported and valued. Through practical learning, you’ll become confident in having structured conversations and learn techniques to help others reflect on their challenges and find their own solutions.
Recommended Coaching & Mentoring Qualifications for FE Teachers
At Carlton Training, we have a range of ILM-accredited coaching and mentoring qualifications that are ideal for busy teaching staff who want to build a strong foundation of leadership skills:
Level 3 in Effective Coaching
Qualifications: Level 3 Award in Effective Coaching (10 credits) or Level 3 Certificate in Effective Coaching (13 credits). These qualifications introduce the main coaching concepts and provide practical tools that you can immediately apply to your daily work.
Ideal for: FE teachers who want to develop fundamental coaching skills to support colleagues and students. These skills are valuable if you are at the beginning of your leadership journey.
These Courses Will:
- Build your communication skills.
- Give you practical coaching techniques to support colleagues and students.
- Develop your questioning and listening skills to bring out the best in others.
- Create a strong foundation for future leadership roles.
- Help you to guide others through challenges and professional development.
Level 3 in Effective Mentoring
Qualifications: Level 3 Award in Effective Mentoring (10 credits) or Level 3 Certificate in Effective Mentoring (13 credits). These qualifications focus specifically on mentoring approaches that help build capacity in others through structured guidance and support. Mentoring skills are particularly valuable in FE environments where developing new teaching talent is important.
Ideal For: Educators who want to guide and support the development of their staff or students.
These Courses Will:
- Teach you the foundation of mentoring techniques to support others’ growth.
- Encourage you to reflect on your practice to improve your teaching and leadership.
- Help you to give constructive feedback.
- Demonstrate a commitment to developing others.
Level 5 in Effective Coaching and Mentoring
Qualifications: Level 5 Certificate in Effective Coaching and Mentoring
Ideal For: Experienced educators who aspire to take on senior leadership roles in further education.
These Courses Will:
- Evolve your coaching and mentoring techniques to prepare you for more complex situations.
- Strengthen your ability to develop others.
- Consolidate the skills you need to create a college-wide coaching culture.
- Equip you to transform how staff development works in your organisation.
Expand Your Leadership Opportunities with Carlton Training’s Professional Development Programmes
Carlton Training provides specialised coaching and mentoring qualifications designed specifically for busy professionals. Our courses can be delivered in-house over several days as a CPD programme or completed flexibly online over 12-24 months.
Take the next step in your FE leadership journey, and contact us to talk about coaching and mentoring qualifications today.
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