Say hello and wave goodbye?

Will 'golden hellos' address the problem of college lecturers in shortage subjects opting to teach in schools, asks Neil Merrick

Some Further Education lecturers will be in for a pleasant surprise when they check their salary slips towards the end of November. In addition to their normal pay, they will get a bonus or "golden hello" of up to £4,000 – providing that they began working in a further education or sixth form college in September 2001 and spend most of their time teaching one of eight shortage subjects.

Given the acute teacher shortages in some colleges, cynics might suggest that the money is really pleading to lecturers: "Please don't leave." Indeed, there is nothing to stop a lecturer from taking the money and then moving to a better-paid job. But college principals are also questioning how the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), which administers the scheme, came up with the list of shortage subjects that it has. Five – design and technology, ICT, maths, modern languages and science – are identical to those that qualify for golden hellos in schools. But while schools also classify geography, music and religious education as shortage subjects, the LSC chose construction, engineering and English.

Chris Vesey, principal of Dunstable College, Bedfordshire, has tried to apply the scheme twice in her college and failed – either because the post she was trying to fill is not classified as a shortage subject or because the individual did not join the college at the right time and fails to meet teacher training criteria. "It has not quite hit the spots that it was intended to," says Vesey, whose college struggles to fill posts in health and social care and public services. "It is very school oriented and doesn't recognise the diverse routes by which teachers come into FE."

Golden hellos were introduced to counter teacher shortages in schools two years ago. Last year, about 1,800 teachers received payments, while figures are not yet available for 2002/3. By introducing them in colleges, ministers are belatedly showing that they appreciate the need for fairness between the two sectors. But there remain huge discrepancies in pay which will not be wiped out by lecturers receiving one-off bonuses at the start of their careers.

According to the Association of Colleges, newly appointed schoolteachers can earn £3,000 more than lecturers while, at the top of the basic scale, there is a pay gap of nearly £5,800. A recent AoC survey found 3,239 teaching posts vacant in colleges – up 25 per cent on last year – while the number of FE vacancies was double that in schools. Key shortage areas included basic skills and visual arts.

Noel Otley, principal of Havering College in Essex, says golden hellos will encourage people to think about a career in FE – only for them to reject it when they realise that they can earn more elsewhere. Havering, which is near the M25 and only 20 minutes by train from central London, has major problems attracting accountancy lecturers. Considering the large salaries that local accountants can earn working in the City, such vacancies are not surprising. Other shortage subjects include social work, carpentry and bricklaying.

Like many colleges, Havering survives by offering overtime contracts to full-time staff so they cover posts that cannot be filled, and employing part-time lecturers whose main income is drawn from outside FE. "Golden hellos won't address the fundamental issue which is that FE pay does not stack up compared with schools or industry," says Otley.

Just three out of the 350 lecturers at Oaklands College, St Albans, will be entitled to receive a "hello", according to principal Helen Parr. Some of the staff who she would like to offer hellos joined Oakland from other colleges and have been in Further Education for more than one year. "We're desperately short of staff to teach electronics and plumbing but we can't match pay levels in the commercial sector," she says.

Barry Lovejoy, head of colleges at the lecturers' union NATFHE, would have liked to see business and key skills classed as shortage subjects, and says the scheme could end up lowering morale further. "It could lead to divisions in colleges because the money is only going to the few," he says.

The union, which had a one-day strike over pay this week, estimates that at least 1,000 lecturers leave FE every year to take up more lucrative jobs in schools. "The golden hello is a one-off payment," he says. "It would be the icing on the cake, if only there was something in the cake in the first place."

Ken Pascoe, LSC director of operations, says the council is willing to look again at whether it has included the right subjects but wants to get payments flowing as soon as possible. It calculates that up to 1,000 lecturers will qualify for "hellos" this year although, in theory, the £2.7m set aside may not be enough. "If we had rather more come forward than anticipated, we would certainly find the money," he says.

The payments, which are taxable, will be banded so that £1,000 is paid to staff who spend 25 per cent of their time teaching a shortage subject, £2,000 for those who spend 50 per cent and so on. Lecturers, who must be teacher trained or working towards a teaching qualification, should fill out an application form and have it endorsed by their college, which then sends it to the local LSC. Golden hellos are publicised through a helpline run by the Further Education National Training Organisation (FENTO). The helpline, which also deals with other enquiries relating to FE, receives about 40 calls a day from people interested in teaching in colleges. David Hunter, Fento's chief executive, says it is important that golden hellos recognise the importance of lecturers gaining teaching qualifications. Callers are already enquiring about the scheme but it is too early to say what impact it will have on recruitment and retention. "They should go some way towards helping colleges retain teaching staff in certain shortage subjects, but they are only a first step towards achieving parity with schools," he says.

education@independent.co.uk