Changes in the concepts of professionalism in English Further Education (FE) colleges can be traced back to the Further Education Reform Act 1988 and the incorporation of colleges in 1992. Incorporation--essentially a decentralising of control over colleges--entailed new forms of governance, and the transfer of functions such as finance, estates and human resource management from the Local Education Authorities (LEAs) to management within colleges. The research from which this article is drawn, taking place ten years after incorporation, offers some insight into the conception and development of new professional roles for college managers. The research took the form of multiple case studies at four English further education colleges. The role of middle managers holding a range of responsibilities--for curriculum, for college services and for services to students--was investigated through interview and questionnaire data collected from the managers and key members of their role sets. This article discusses emerging concepts of professionalism from the analysis of the data. (Contains 1 figure.)