We know two things about further education in England, which has been our landscape for the past few years:
1. it uses the term 'FE' in a narrow sense (only provision funded by the Department for Education) and
2. its leadership and hierarchies replicate society's inequalities (compare The Education and Training Foundation's workforce data with the student population).

Our vision is wider and deeper. FE Constellations is funded by its members and we have no restrictions on where and how you work with adults and young people on programmes of learning. You don't have to be in the UK. You don't need to self-identify as 'FE' or work in any particular role. You don't have to be an educator. We are here to work with ⭐️Changemakers⭐️

We are looking for 30 individuals and 30 organisations to form the membership of FE Constellations. This is deliberate; a community so small that everyone is known and so big that there's always a buzz 🐝  

Our COMMUNITY CATALYST🔥 programme actively invites Difference🌿

It's the only way to prevent those societal inequalities being replicated again and again.

We are offering a FREE SIX MONTH TRIAL to ⭐️Changemakers⭐️ who are operating across dimensions of difference🌿 This could be identity characteristics (nb we are all intersectional beings) and/or where you do your work. On the last day of each month, we'll check which applications have come in via this form, and select against two criteria. The number of places available will ebb and flow with the level of membership (which in turn will reflect the patterns of the year).

💛💙YOU CAN OF COURSE JUST JOIN US FROM THE FE CONSTELLATIONS WEBSITE AT ANY TIME💙💛 www.feconstellations.net (everyone gets a fortnight's free trial, so you can check out the deal). There are no selection criteria for the regular membership.

If you are selected as a COMMUNITY CATALYST🔥 we hope that you'll want to continue your membership after the six month trial as its such incredible value. We hope, too, that you'll bring your organisation on board (so that you don't have to pay anything). The six months is to give you the space to develop as a ⭐️Changemaker⭐️ We think it's long enough to affirmatively shake things up 😀

We are selecting on the basis of the TWO QUESTIONS below, so please consider them carefully. We ask you to leave role, rank and ego firmly at the door in your replies.

GUIDANCE
Question 1 asks you about your changemaker energy, we call this POTENTIA🌱 You can hear us talking about potentia here: https://youtu.be/MHXjKyH6Rcs (It's a fascinating story). We don't care what you've done as a ⭐️Changemaker⭐️ We care who you are and what energy you bring to the community.

Question 2 will select for difference, across all its dimensions, including contexts and settings of your work. FE Constellations will thrive on the different perspectives of its participants. Please tell us what you want us to know about you and PLEASE🙏🏻 don't limit yourself to the protected characteristics of the UK Equality Act 2010. We want to know about colourism, about class, about neurodiversity, about work outside of England and/or general FE (etc, you decide).

We will select against both those questions on the last day of every month. PLEASE BEAR IN MIND THAT WE DO NOT HAVE A FIXED NUMBER OF PLACES EACH MONTH. Some months, we'll be full up.

If you're not selected, we hope you'll still want to join us via our website: www.feconstellations.net

⭐️💛⭐️💛⭐️💛 WE KNOW THAT THIS IS A BOLD APPROACH TO RECRUITMENT. We feel it's deeply aligned with our values and the principles of our work:

Seva | Potentia | Community
Transition | Momentum | Sustainability |
Pro-social | Anti-competitive | Pan-organisational

Clear is kind and we are happy to have a radically candid conversation with you about the selection process. Feel free to contact us on social media or via email (see FE Constellations website).

If you are invited and find you can't make it, please let us know, because that will make us all feel happier with our interaction (and we can offer the place to someone else). We'll remind you of this.

PLEASE RETURN THIS FORM BY 9am on the last day of the month (whenever that is). For simplicity's sake, we don't carry applications over to the following month.

(Credit to Lou and Kay Sidebottom's selection process for the Posthuman Pedagogies🌱 weekend in April 2022, which trialled this approach).

Warmest wishes
Lou Mycroft and Joss Kang