There are four categories of registration which apply to practitioners working in the further education (FE) sector in Wales:

• principals and senior leaders in further education
• further education teacher
• further education learning support worker
• work-based learning practitioner

FE principals and senior leaders

FE institutions should ensure that a person who is managing teaching and learning in, or for, an FE institution in Wales is registered.

Further education is defined as education (other than higher education) suitable to the requirements of persons who are over compulsory school age (over 16 years old).

Further education principal and senior leader is defined as a person who is managing teaching and learning in, or for, an FE institution in Wales, who is not on a lecturer’s contract.

Those who fall within the above definition, but also undertake lecturing, would need to register in both the category of FE teacher, and FE principal and senior leader, to undertake their work.

Please note, there is no minimal qualification for registering as an FE principal or senior leader.

FE teachers

FE teachers include:

• any person employed by an FE institution on a lecturers’ contract, whether this be full-time, part-time, temporary, fixed term basis or on an hourly rate
• a person employed on a management scale, but that undertakes scheduled lecturing or teaching in, or for an FE institution, regardless of the number of hours involved or however short-term the lecturing or teaching may be for
• a person who has a part-time contract as an FE lecturer, and another part-time contract as an FE learning support worker
• agency staff undertaking lecturing/teaching duties, without a temporary or permanent contract with an FE institution

Regulations stipulate that any practitioners registered as a further education teacher must hold at least one of the qualifications listed in the attached schedule.

Practitioners who do not have  one of the qualifications listed in the schedule must seek to achieve an appropriate qualification within the following time periods:

• three years from the date on which they started working towards the qualification where the practitioner is employed full-time
• five years from the date on which they started working towards the qualification where the practitioner is employed part-time

If the practitioner does not achieve the required qualification within this timescale, they will no longer be eligible to register with the EWC as an FE teacher.

FE learning support workers

An FE learning support worker can be a person employed by an FE institution (not on a lecturers’ contract) to provide any of the support services set out in the Act, where the person is directly involved in learning delivery, whether this be full-time, part-time, temporary, fixed term basis or on an hourly rate. This might include a learning support assistant, an instructor, demonstrator, technician, learning coach or librarian who may assist students with any learning.

They can also be a person who is not on a lecturers’ contract and who undertakes a small amount of lecturing in addition to their substantive non-lecturing role in order to cover the absence of a contracted FE teacher. This would include all employees (including business support staff) who might receive a temporary uplift or similar to undertake such duties. However, if such a person is subsequently placed on a lecturers’ contract later, they would then need to be registered in the category of FE teacher instead

They also include agency staff delivering support services of an FE learning support worker without a temporary or permanent contract with a FE institution.

Also, anybody who is already registered in another category with the EWC, but provides support services of an FE learning support worker. All staff need to be registered in the category or categories of registration for the work they undertake.