growing concern from teachers in further education about a sense of de-professionalising the sector, the FESDF became the Further Education National Training Organisation (FENTO). One of the FESDF's proposed objectives for FENTO was the need to give consideration to the role that a professional body for further education could play in the professionalisation agenda; this become one of FENTO's key strategic objectives. In 2000, three research studies were carried into the feasibility of creating a professional body for further education, two commissioned by FENTO and one a contemporary piece of academic research. Effectively, each was an exercise in market research and, based in sample sizes in the low thousands, the outcomes were consistent – two-thirds of staff surveyed were in support, 30% wanted to ‘wait and see’ and less than 10% were opposed. In 2001 a business plan was established by the FENTO Council and a name was chosen, the Institute for Learning (FE) – to be comparable with the ILT (HE) as one of its important interfaces. At this point the government amplified the focus on the professionalism of further education teachers with regulations requiring all new teachers to hold a recognised teaching qualification, based on the new FENTO standards, with a target of a fully qualified workforce by 2010. Early 2002 the Institute for Learning was incorporated, the Memorandum and Articles of Association were signed by founder members Pauline Lovell and Derek Betts, a Transitional Council was formed and the process of attracting a "volunteer" paying membership began. In November 2004 the Institute for Learning's prospects of becoming a fully established professional body were given a significant boost with the publication of the key DfES policy document, ‘Equipping our Teachers for the Future’. For the Institute for Learning, with a growing membership in the low thousands, section 4.7 of the document came to represent a key turning-point: With one critical modification; the extension of the registration and CPD elements to all teachers in the sector (and not just new entrants), "Equipping our Teachers" was introduced more-or-less as projected. The Institute for Learning was afforded responsibilities in the Further Education Teachers’ Qualifications (England) Regulations 2007 and the Further Education Teachers' Continuing Professional Development and Registration (England) Regulations 2007 governing the registration, professional formation and remaining in good standing through CPD of teachers in further education. The requirements of the regulations were extended to learning providers funded by the Learning