The Leadership Pipeline

Marilyn Hawkins

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The key question

How do we create a stronger

leadership pipeline for the post-16 sector?

Internal candidates?

External candidates?

Better systems and processes?

Better development and support?

The key question

Our approach:

• Early discussions with ‘experts’, listening to their thoughts, views, and suggestions.

• Literature search – do others do it better?

• Forty one-to-one conversations with individuals across the sector and across the Country (drawn from eight distinctive ‘categories’).

The literature

As any sector changes and responds to issues such as

technology and globilisation, new types of

leaders are needed.

Most sectors, not just education, worry about an

ageing workforce and a lack of people coming through

to leadership roles.

Early identification of people with potential (and being clear what potential means) gives them time to build the necessary profile.

Most leaders come from within a sector they know and understand, but they

are often given some external experience to help

them develop.

This issue is much too important to leave to

chance –improving the ‘pipeline’ needs to be

planned.

Core findings - conversations

May put good people off applying for a more

senior role?

Too much negative press (scandal, risk, cuts, failures) in the sector – puts people

off.

Recruitment and selection processes

take time and energy, and work

against non-sector candidates applying.

Assumptions that candidates from a

teaching background and/or internal candidates have an advantage.

No clear ‘pipeline’ route to show

people the path to leadership when they start in FE.

Core findings - conversations

Good people lack confidence

to apply

Its taken for granted that good teachers can be

good managers –training when available isn’t followed through with further support.

Does the sector allow aspiring leaders enough opportunities to gain the

wider experience and gather the evidence they

need?

Poor feedback means that candidates lose

motivation and ‘fill the space’ with .

Core findings - conversations

What needs to change to improve the future ‘pipeline’ and give the sector more strong, talented leaders?

Recommendations

Reforming the recruitment and

selection process

?

Targeting and supporting the next generation

of leaders