Programmes - Industrial Fellowships

Colleges interested in participating in the Industrial Fellowship Scheme for 2009 should APPLY NOW. Closing date for applications is Friday 27 February 2009. Application forms for the Scheme can be found HERE. 

Since September 2007, further education lecturers have been required to undertake at least 30 hours of continuous professional development (CPD) prorata. The Industrial Fellowship Scheme, running since 2005, and backed by generous financial support from the Gatsby Charitable Foundation enables each participating college to apply for a grant of £12,000 towards the secondment of up to 3 of their nominated science, engineering, construction and technology lecturers totake secondments with local businesses or technical/scientific research centres in Universities, thereby raising the lecturers' skills and knowledge and achieving the industrial relevance and context to their teaching, thus improving the overall learning experience of the students.

• Our aim is improve the quality of SET lecturers by updating their skills and competencies, thus ensuring that what is taught in the classroom is what industry really needs;
• Our focus is in the area of engineering, construction, science and technology
• Our success so far has meant that over 250 lecturers in almost 100 colleges throughout the UK have benefited from secondments  – and have been made Fellows of the New Engineering Foundation.

Background to the Industrial Fellowship Scheme

The introduction of this Industrial Fellowship Scheme was the result of an Action Research Study that surveyed over 80 Colleges in 2004. The Report identified that FE College lecturers in Engineering and Technology suffered from a lack of formal technical professional development in their particular fields. Data extracts from the survey can be found here (Slides).

The report recommended a form of industrial secondment, and this recommendation became the Industrial Fellowship Scheme, which has been running successfully since 2005. Extracts from the Action Research Report can be found here (PDF File).

The Scheme was independently evaluated in 2007, and extracts from the independent evaluation can be found here (Slides).