College employers are backing the creation of a private agency that aims to run a national directory of up to 400,000 self-employed lecturers for hire.

The service will enable further education colleges to replace part-time employees with hourly-paid lecturers from the register.

The announcement this week will further inflame tensions in the long-running dispute over new contracts for full-time lecturers.

Midlands-based consultancy Bowmer and Kirkland has pledged Pounds 5.5 million for setting up the agency, Education Lecturing Services, to be based in Nottingham with five regional offices.

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ELS has been established as a non-profit-making company to oversee and assure the quality of its operating arm, Protocol. The ELS board so far includes Protocol's chief executive Geoff Lennox and Colleges Employers Forum chief executive Roger Ward. College principals and unions will be invited to join them.

Mr Ward said: "The further education sector must establish a range of staffing solutions that will enable colleges to cope with restricted budgets and changing demands. We believe that ELS provides such as approach."

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He said neither he nor the CEF had any financial interest in the agency to avoid compromising its ability to offer impartial advice.

ELS is recruiting 75 staff, and an ad campaign will aim to attract back the hundreds of lecturers who have left the profession in recent years, to enable colleges to meet government student-growth targets. Pay rates will range from Pounds 8 to Pounds 17 an hour. Colleges will pay Pounds 6,000 to join and Pounds 6,000 annually.