The Importance of Professional Development in Further Education

There's an even bigger practical issue in further education in England which is not just making the time for the practitioner but also paying to cover their classes. We've done some research into barriers to CPD and there are a number of barriers as you might expect. The single most common one is not being released because institutions are typically working on very very very tight margins. That's why often we build in to our CPD programs funding specifically to cover that that teaching that is missed while the teacher engages. Teachers should not be obliged to engage in their own time absolutely not. It's a large part about culture so in some institutions finding the time for professional development is absolutely a known issue.