Other Education Managers
Plan, organise, direct, control and coordinate educational policy, and provide advice and educational and administrative support to staff and students in educational institutions.
Start of term in the faculty
You are a faculty manager at a technical college, responsible for teachers, students and programs in your area, in the second week of a new term. It is Monday of week two. Enrolments are higher than expected, one teacher has resigned, and a group of students has asked to see you about their timetable.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
Our class has been given a timetable that clashes with the shifts most of us work. Half the group may have to leave. We have tried to raise it with our teacher, but nothing changes. Can you help?
Tell Lachlan the timetable is fixed and students must organise their work around it this term
Several students withdraw in the next fortnight. A rigid answer loses the very people the program exists for, and the story spreads through the cohort.
Thank him, find out how many students are affected and look at the scheduling options
You find two small changes that solve most of the clashes. Lachlan reports back to the class and trust in the faculty grows. Students want to be listened to as much as they want a particular answer.
Ask Lachlan to submit a formal request in writing so it can be considered
Process is respected, but a week passes before anything happens. Students are anxious and some give up. You can follow a process and still act quickly.
A new teacher in my team is struggling. Students say she reads from slides and does not answer questions. She is lovely and she is trying. I do not want to hurt her confidence, but I do not want students to suffer either. What should I do?
Ask Sabine to quietly take over the class and not tell the teacher why
The new teacher finds out, feels humiliated and considers resigning. Solving a problem behind someone's back usually creates a bigger one.
Suggest that Sabine and the new teacher team-teach for a few weeks, with feedback and a clear plan agreed with her
The teacher improves, though the plan took time to set up and some students had a frustrating month. Supporting new teachers is worth the effort, but it needs to start early.
Meet the new teacher yourself, listen to her view, and agree on support such as coaching, observation and a check-in date
She feels supported rather than judged. Students notice improvements within weeks, and she stays. Good managers treat struggling teachers as people who need help, not as problems.
My members need graduates who can do a particular task, and your program does not cover it. I would like you to add it to the program this year. If you cannot, we may look at another provider.
Agree to add it, because the employers are important partners and could take your graduates
The employers are pleased, but you promised content before checking whether it fits the program, the rules or the teachers' skills. The change is rushed and uneven.
Explain what you can and cannot change, and offer a short session for current students
Dr Mitchell sees you as a partner, not an obstacle. The short session starts quickly and the longer conversation continues with the right people. Working with industry is about listening and being honest about limits.
Tell him the program is set by official standards and cannot be changed
He is not entirely wrong, but the answer sounds like a closed door. The employers begin talking to another provider, and the faculty loses a valuable relationship.
How it went
By Friday the timetable problem is on its way to being solved, the new teacher has a support plan and the employers have a seat at the table. Education managers sit between students, teachers, employers and rules, and try to keep all of them moving in the same direction. Would you enjoy helping an institution work well for the people in it?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: Why the first month was losing students
A fictional case set in the trades and applied skills faculty of a fictional technical college in a regional city.
The situation
Faculty manager Oluwaseun Adeyemi noticed that many students in a popular program were leaving within the first month, and nobody could say why. Teachers thought it was student motivation. The student support team thought it was money worries. Students who left did not reply to calls. Employers who needed the graduates were beginning to ask why the numbers were falling. The college had invested heavily in the program and the pressure to fix it fast was growing.
What they did
Oluwaseun did not guess. She asked a student support officer to phone leavers one more time, with a short list of friendly questions, and set up two sessions where current first-month students could talk freely without teachers present. Patterns appeared: confusing timetables, no clear contact for questions and a first assessment that came before students felt ready. She worked with teachers on a gentler start, with a named mentor and a simpler first week.
How it turned out
Fewer students left in the next intake, though not all of the problem disappeared. Teachers were initially defensive, then pleased to see what the students had said. Oluwaseun kept the listening sessions as a regular part of each intake.
What would you do?
- Why did Oluwaseun keep teachers out of the first listening sessions?
- How would you handle teachers who feel blamed for a problem?
- What do you think it is like to be responsible for whether students succeed or leave?