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The role of a manager within any organisation is often complex and multifaceted. Overtime management theory has developed in an effort to appreciate these complexities and suggest frameworks from which managers should operate. However, should management and the role of a manager be considered generic? Or, instead should we appreciate the distinctions dependant on the context in which a manager is operating in? This paper focuses on education middle managers working in vocational education and training using the Further Education sector in England as a case study to investigate the role. Utilising systematic review the paper will discuss literature on management theory, competency theory and further education management. It considers a range of management theories such as scientific, human relations and open systems theory discussing how these have informed the development of competency theory and frameworks, highlighting the strengths and limitations of prior studies. Building from these studies, this paper creates a new way to develop management competency frameworks. This is illustrated by proposing a contextualised literature-informed competency framework for further education middle managers. Challenging the generic approach to management competency frameworks and providing a platform for empirical studies that develop frameworks contextualised to the external operating environment of the manager. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The further education sector is a challenging working environment with expectations to deliver high-quality education against a backdrop of continuous policy and structural reforms. Further education managers play a key part in how further education institutions respond to this dynamic operating environment. However, despite the importance of this role there is an absence of an agreed set of professional expectations for further education middle managers. Sector bodies have commissioned research to address recruitment challenges and support workforce development, but this is often directed towards teachers. As a result, the credibility of further education teachers has increased markedly, which is welcomed. However, further education middle managers who are responsible for the management of teachers and operationalisation of organisational strategies have not benefited from comparable opportunities for professionalisation. In contrast, they suffer from a lack of support when assimilating into the role. This paper investigates the role of further education middle managers through the lens of those responsible for their recruitment and development, human resource managers. Through the administration of a national survey of human resource managers, drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, this paper establishes a new theoretical framework: four pillars of professional expectations for further education middle managers. Furthermore, it highlights the value in a contextualised approach, moving away from generic management standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers wellbeing in the context of those working in the further education (FE) sector in England and how this has been affected by the Covid pandemic. There has been a growth of research into the impact of the pandemic on the workforce in the higher education sector and some considerations for schools. However, research that examines the FE sector's workforce, an education sector which is often considered under-resourced, can be lacking. Our empirical research seeks to begin to address this gap and provide a unique contribution through the replication of a pre-pandemic national FE workforce wellbeing study commissioned by the Education and Training Foundation. The current study uses the same scale framework as the 2019 study to assess the wellbeing of FE sector employees. The results from 347 responses show that the pandemic had a negative impact on the wellbeing of employees, but employees drew upon their resilience to cope with increasing demands in the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]