New Governance Development Programme guide

A new guide to the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) Governance Development Programme that will help users navigate the content and create a personalised learning experience is now available.

It features detailed descriptions of the 30-plus elements of the programme and the different experience levels – core, proficient and highly effective – at which they are pitched, allowing governors and governance professionals to blend different components to design a flexible but structured learning programme reflecting their individual interests and needs. The guide also explains how each element is delivered and assessed.

The programme is structured across six pathways:

• Being an effective board member – which covers safeguarding, Prevent, the role of board members, effective behaviours and virtual governance.
• Curriculum – which provides an introduction to curriculum design and planning, understanding curriculum offers and student profiles, and partnership working.
• Quality and standards – which focuses on developing governors’ ability to contribute to improving outcomes in the areas of teaching, learning and assessment, ensuring that they understand their role in maintaining high educational standards
• Strategy and educational character – which focuses on setting strategy, mission, values and understanding requirements for Ofsted inspections.
• Finance, risk and audit – which focuses on processes, procedures and frameworks to help colleges meet statutory obligations for the efficient use of resources and safeguarding of assets.
• Board leadership and organisational development – which focuses on effective and inclusive leadership, including the delivery of high-quality, safe and effective learning environments.

The guide can be accessed here.

To read more about how governors and governance professionals Rachel Kirk, Pat O’Neill, Parveen Ghulam and Linda Norville have engaged with the programme, visit the governance case studies page of the ETF website.

Further details of the Governance Development Programme, including a downloadable checklist for users, are available on the dedicated Governance Development Programme page of the ETF website.

The Governance Development Programme is part of a wider range of ETF support for governance in the FE sector, which includes CPD and competency frameworks, in conjunction with which the Governance Development Programme is designed to be used. For full details, visit the Governance Programmes page of the ETF website.

The programme transferred to its new home on the ETF’s online learning platform at the end of 2023, providing a more seamless experience to users. The new platform and its content are free to access, but first-time users are required to register when they log in. As well as the Governance Development Programme, it also features content for colleagues across the sector in areas including apprenticeships, edtech and digital, equality, diversity and inclusion, ESOL, Prevent and safeguarding.