The government will spend £196 million this academic year to attract more teachers into the profession.
Additional funding for scholarships, bursaries and salary grants will help thousands of candidates through their Initial Teacher Training (ITT), the Department for Education has suggested.
But headteachers’ leaders have described the proposals as “tinkering at the edges” and also warned a similar focus is needed on retention.
The DfE has also said that scholarships for those training to teach maths, physics, chemistry and computing will be brought up to £30,000 tax-free.
The announcement comes as the NASUWT teaching union called for an increased investment in the profession amid warnings of a “deepening recruitment and retention crisis”.
Last week, prime minister Rishi Sunak announced plans to introduce the Advanced British Standard (ABS) - a new single qualification that will eventually replace A levels and T levels.
The government plans to increase the number of taught hours for all post-16 students to at least 1,475 over two years - an extra 195 hours for most students (the equivalent to two-and-a-half hours per week).
Mr Sunak committed to an initial investment of £600 million over two years for the ABS - which would include funding for tax-free bonuses of up to £30,000 over the first five years of their career for teachers in key shortage subjects.
The DfE has said the next recruitment cycle will see a £15 million increase in the financial support available to trainee teachers compared to the last cycle.
Rise in existing bursaries
As part of the rise, existing bursaries for biology and design and technology will also be brought up to £25,000 and additional bursaries for subjects that are compulsory to the curriculum have been introduced - including one in music.
Those applying to train to teach music will receive a £10,000 bursary.
Ian Hartwright, head of policy at the NAHT school leaders’ union, warned that the government also needed to address the retention crisis.
He said: “Without a far more ambitious and comprehensive approach from the government, school leaders will continue to struggle to ensure all children have the teachers they need to flourish.
“It’s vital the government’s refreshed recruitment and retention strategy includes tangible measures to tackle the route causes of this crisis, including not only unsustainable levels of workload but also the damaging impact of Ofsted inspections and the real-terms pay cuts inflicted on the profession over the last decade.”
Advanced British Standard
Education secretary Gillian Keegan said: “The new Advanced British Standard will expand the range of what our 16- to 19-year-olds learn and finally end the artificial divide between academic and technical education.
“We know teachers will be key to its success - just as they have been to raising standards since 2010. That’s why we need the best and the brightest teaching throughout our schools. These bursaries give trainee teachers even more choice and support to help them start their journey into the classroom.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “This is no more than tinkering at the edges of the teacher recruitment and retention crisis.
“As the government well knows, the increase in the number of teachers in the workforce since 2010 is outstripped by the rise in the number of pupils in that time and teacher shortages are critical.
“The government has repeatedly missed its secondary school teacher recruitment targets and 44,000 teachers left state schools last year.”
