Governance and College Success – Making it Happen!

However, to what extent do we prepare, develop and train our governors effectively? We usually appoint governors because of their professional backgrounds and skills, the strategic contributions they can make to college governance, and the relevance of their life experiences. However, for many of our new governors, the world of further education is completely new, and governance may be completely new as well.

Sometimes I hear it said that to understand college governance, individuals need to go through a full year’s academic cycle before they become familiar and comfortable with their roles as governors. However, is this good enough and has the sector developed and offered the right kind of development opportunities to ensure new, and even existing, governors can flourish in these crucial roles?

As a current Chair of Governors, I recognise the challenges of offering our Board members relevant and accessible development opportunities. It is currently very difficult to find a comprehensive development offer that will meet the needs of the majority of our Board. For example, how do we develop my Chairing capabilities whilst ensuring our new governors are adequately inducted into the world of FE? How can we bring one of our governors from a school’s background up to speed on the key aspects of FE quality and performance? How do we get our governors who do not come from financial backgrounds confident and comfortable with scrutinising the financial performance of the college and how can we build the capacity of the whole Board to make an effective contribution to the strategic development of the college?

To answer these questions and many more, we brought together a team of sector experts – executive and non-executive  – and embarked on a process of exploration and enquiry to answer this question: How might we provide college governing bodies with an effective programme of development to drive governance effectiveness? By approaching this key question with genuine curiosity and by working collaboratively, we developed a new governance development offer for the sector: Governance for Success. There is no doubt that effective governance can make a genuine contribution to the success of colleges, but well-informed and expert governors are essential to making this happen.

In designing a new development offer for college governors, we agreed on a number of key principles, including:

1. We had to put together a team of true governance experts, the majority of whom should be serving college governors, who could leverage their experiences to enable others to develop
2. The offer needed to be appropriate for new governors – capable of becoming part of a college’s governance induction programme
3. The programme should be capable of building the skills and confidence of existing college governors, particularly those who may be joining committees for the first time or stepping into the role of Chair for the first time
4. The programme should combine both the strategic and technical aspects of college governance; and
5. The programme should offer value for money and be used by college Boards as a key part of their development offer for governors.

We have held to these principles in creating the FEA Governance for Success programme. We have a first-class team of experts delivering the various workshops. Of the 10 workshops, 7 are being delivered by current serving governors, with the other three being delivered by subject matter experts with a deep understanding of college governors gained through their experience as senior sector leaders. We have designed our 10 workshops to ensure that new governors can quickly become familiar with key aspects of college governance, starting right at the beginning with the FE landscape and language. We have designed workshops with experienced college governors in mind and have provided development opportunities for Chairs focusing on building board teams and managing Senior Post Holder relationships and the range of content focuses on core college activity such as quality, performance, finance and risk as well as shining a light on some current hot topics such as digital and AI, inspection and inclusion.

And finally, we have developed an offer with value for money at its core. A college can purchase the entire workshop series for only £1,800, which allows two Board members to attend each session – effectively becoming the Board’s CPD offer for the year. Alternatively, individual places can be purchased for each workshop for only £180 or an individual may wish to attend all 10 workshops for only £1,200.

We are very proud of the collaborative approach we have taken to the design of this new governance development programme and our entire team looks forward to working in partnership with college governors to drive governance success across the sector.

To find out more about the Governance for Success programme see www.fea.co.uk/programmes/governance-for-success/

For enquiries and bookings please email Jack.Moriarty@fea.co.uk

Workshop 1 of the Governance for Success series, The FE Landscape and Language, commences on Friday 26 September 2025.

Matt Atkinson is Managing Director of FE Associates and currently serves as Chair of South Gloucestershire and Stroud College.