A pound;15.6 million surplus on a massively increased budget was the only cloud on the Teacher Training Agency’s horizon last year, according to its annual report.

The agency is gearing up for a five-year expansion of initial teacher training to meet the sometimes desperate demand for staff from schools.

The TTA is only allowed to carry forward pound;3 million in underspend, but the Department for Education and Skills has agreed another pound;2.7m to cover programmes started but not completed in 2001-02. It may take the remaining pound;9.9m back from the budget for this year.

The agency’s government grant soared to pound;401m in 2001-02 - an increase of about pound;100m in a single year.

Chief executive Ralph Tabberer said the agency was using underspends to expand existing programmes and develop alternative routes into teaching, such as the Graduate Teacher Programme which pays people to train on the job. “We are running a long way ahead of government pledges on the graduate programme. Employment-based routes overall are now up to around 4,000 places,” said Mr Tabberer, whose salary and pensions package rose from pound;106,976 to pound;108,955 in 2001-02.

By the end of the academic year, he expects 7,000 more places to be created on new routes such as GTP, fast-track, the undergraduate credits scheme (see story below left), and the Teach First scheme for London, which hopes to recruit 200 high-flying but unqualified graduates to do stints in secondaries after accelerated training.

At the same time, recruitment to conventional courses has also increased, with the GTP helping to make up shortfalls in shortage subjects such as modern languages.

Mary Russell, of the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers, said it welcomed the agency’s more positive attitude towards working in partnership with providers on new initiatives.

But she sounded a note of caution about the expansion of on-the-job training routes, citing the case of an England-trained teacher whose GTP qualification was not recognised in Australia. Last year, two GTP-trained English teachers were refused permission to teach in Scotland.

And on the underspend, she added: “Considering how expensive running initial teacher education courses is these days, particularly when you take into account the enormous cost of inspections, it would be a great pity if this money was lost.”

See www.canteach.gov.uk for details about recruitment