FE Constellations

We bring together changemakers in FE through an online curated learning experience, so that we can connect, collaborate and co-create previously unimagined futures for ourselves and the communities we serve.

FE Constellations is an evidence-informed online membership community designed for changemakers in Further Education. Our big promise is to support each other to move 'from good intentions to sustainable action' by mining our collective energies and know-how, alongside the latest in systems and culture change thinking.

For organisations, FE Constellations is like having a consultant in your pocket - and for the price of a few days traditional consultancy you get us for a year. 

For individuals, FE Constellations the coach in your pocket - again, for the price of two or three coaching sessions, you get us for a year (you can pay monthly if you wish).

But it's so much more, because you are also joining a pan-organisational community which is small enough to know everyone but big enough to draw on the collective buzz of perspective, ideas and experience.

The real pay-off is that, unlike traditional consultancy, we are all about you developing your agency, energy and momentum to do changemaking work. Changing things takes graft, and it takes time. As part of FE Constellations you'll be supported to get past the activation zone where changemaking happens - the sweet spot where good intentions move to sustainable action. 

Changemakers are people who make things happen. It doesn’t matter where you sit in an organisation or what job you do - in FE Constellations we leave role, rank and ego at the door. Everyone is welcome here. 

If you’re reading this, it’s likely that you have a yearning to step into your potentia and make change happen. You’ve probably got a deep desire to be part of something bigger than yourself. But how do you turn good intentions into sustainable action? It’s too easy to get stuck between the two, especially when you throw post-pandemic ‘gobackery’ into the mix.

And although many of the people we know work in Further Education and Training, that's not a deal breaker. We're very expansive about how we define that. If you work with young people or adults, in any setting that leads to growth and learning, you're invited. It's your changemaking capacity we're interested in. We're international, and you don't need institutional permission to join us as an individual. 

You don’t need to have changed anything yet (though you may have changed more than you know). You don’t have to march with a banner or make a big noise. Here you’ll find a community with whom you can connect, collaborate and co-create. It will enable you to step into your own light, your own potentia. To paraphrase Karen Waldron: 

We are the people who quietly and diligently work behind the scenes for good and justice - those who daily activate their own gifts and talents and determination as part of a larger cause.

The FE Constellations community architecture models the best in current research-informed thinking and draws on all that we've learned about designing and stewarding communities over a lifetime of experience. We're also a research community, extending and deepening a living dataset around culture change. Our design and curation is intentional, weaving stories, experiences and research-informed content into seasonal themes which reflect the joyful work of changemakers and which you'll co-create with learning from your own practice.

The FE Constellations community happens in real time. We help members develop the skills palette you need in order to maximise your influence and gather momentum for change. You can access FE Constellations via an app on your phone or device; any time, any place, any space.

FE Constellations works on three levels:

1. Individual - a weekly architecture mapped to four Changemaking Seasons.

2. Organisational - a focused programme where you'll work through the Changemaking Seasons together, to carry out a specific changemaking agenda.

3. Pan-organisational - bringing together the organisational and individual experience to develop perspective, momentum, know-how and skills: The Changemakers Palette.

Build relationships, exchange know-how, workshop your ideas, let off steam and have fun. You’ll learn how to figure out your own big purpose, test out ideas, design projects and you’ll look at change leadership from different perspectives.

Our intentional design process means we'll offer you a weekly, curated series of learning experiences to help you release your own potentia and the latent capacity of others, those golden unicorns in your organisation. We’ll weave your stories into Friday’s Freshest Insights and leave you with a little something to think about over the weekend 😀 We’ll also share research informed possibility thinking approaches from across disciplines. Together, within our changemakers community we’ll create clarity, know-how and momentum.

We’re also big into meta-learning. Teaching you what we know and do, so you can experience the emotional and cognitive wake of working together with meaning and purpose. 

And as a member, you'll have access to our co-created, expert-led programmes, all taking place in this easy-to-use space. We are currently launching:

The Changemakers Programme (from January 2023)

Radical Rest (from April 2023)

from good intentions to sustainable action

Changemakers extraordinaire!

FEConstellations is brought to you by Further Education’s changemakers Joss Kang and Lou Mycroft. We’ve worked together on national cutting edge projects (including #APConnect, CfEM⭐️ and #JoyFE💛) for a number of years now and we’ve had front-row seats to huge changes in professional development. Building on a wealth of research, we’re now articulating a bigger purpose: to design and build sustainable architectures for FE so that individuals and organisations, wherever they are on their journey, can flourish.

Think agency, motivation, potentia: sustainable and future-facing.

Imagine new paradigms of professional development where you're (en)trusted to engage in self-directed, peer-led professional learning via porous spaces, bringing the outside in and the inside out. You'll also have access to expert-led CPD, where 'expertise' is the research-informed work of leading global thinkers.

Think coming together with people from across the world to implement research-informed ideas.

FE Constellations is your way into this bigger vision: designing, building and embedding pan-organisational architectures into the fabric of FE so that you can co-create vibrant, energising and purposeful ways of running professional development.

Brings together changemakers in FE through a curated learning experience so that we can connect, collaborate and co-create previously unimagined futures for ourselves and the communities we serve.

Seva | Potentia | Community

Transition | Momentum | Sustainability | 

Pro-social | Anti-competitive | Pan-organisational

#APConnect Changemakers 

What an amazing journey!

#APConnect is the only programme that has supported real culture change.

Collaboration is the key to change.

I am forever grateful that I have been part of #APConnect, for the learning and for the connections.

These virtual spaces have been life changing and now feel part of my life.

...an absolute game changer for me. I've been allowed to see possible and preferred futures enacted, and I'm starting to see how to get there.

Without the connections I have made I think the motivation, energy, inspiration and support I needed to, not only do my job, but do it well, with passion, do it better would have been nigh impossible. 

Being on that boundary - the link between the organisation and the outside - is essential. It broadens horizons, it enriches, it expands thinking, it pushes and prods in the best possible way. 

The best form of development I have ever experienced, and I’ve always said I HATE CPD!

...a massive impact on my practice as an English teacher; I have evolved as a practitioner in more ways than from any other CPD. My learners have benefitted from my changing approach… Impact is immeasurable."

There is a lot out there that isn’t relevant to the sector, where with #APConnect it is, whereas you can look at it and apply it to anything at any time, T Levels, Construction, enhanced practice, freedom, autonomy. Should be the definitive teacher training programme for all FE practitioners, because it’s so freeing and enabling.

Incredible journey! Let’s continue the amazing work and support through our communities, to empower those who are the change agents of the future! Just brilliant!

FE Constellations for Individuals

Curious? Join us for a week's free trial. There's no penalty for cancellation but we think you'll want to stay 😀 

Individual membership is available at £32 per month or £250 annually (a saving of 35%). Sign up below. 

As a principle of seva (a service culture of belonging), we are initially limiting places to 30 founding members on a first-come, first-served basis.  

• Follow FE Constellations on LinkedIn
• Follow #FEconstellations on Twitter

Watch our livestreams:

Livestream 3 with our story of potentia  

Livestream 2 with our story of community-first

Livestream 1 with our story of seva

We are delighted to introduce the Community Catalysts offer.

Communities need to encompass dimensions of difference, or they end up as stale echo chambers. We are offering a SIX MONTHS free trial to selected applicants, honouring a blend of potentia and perspective. Obviously we hope you'll love this great-value community and continue with us beyond this point!

We'll offer a small number of Community Catalyst places each month, as long as we have the space. We will close at 30 individual founding members and 30 founding organisations, to keep the community small enough for a culture of belonging and big enough for a buzz. 

Apply here for a Community Catalyst place 🔥