A new Teacher Degree Apprenticeship (TDA) is being launched later this year, as the government looks to tackle a teacher supply crisis.
The new TDA will begin as a pilot scheme, with a small number of schools and teacher training providers working with 150 apprentices teaching maths in secondary schools.
Training providers will bid to take part in the pilot. Trainees will be recruited from this autumn and start their training the following year.
Teacher degree apprenticeship
The new apprenticeship will involve trainees undertaking a four-year degree and target teaching assistants and career-changers as potential recruits.
The government hopes the route will open up teaching to candidates who may not be able to take time out to study full-time.
Speaking exclusively to Tes ahead of the announcement, the education secretary Gillian Keegan said the move would “broaden the pipeline” of recruits into the profession.
The move to create a new route into the teaching profession comes amid growing concerns over the state of teacher recruitment and retention.
Currently, apprenticeships are offered as a teacher training route, but only at postgraduate level. A degree apprenticeship enables students to get a degree while they work.
The focus on maths comes after the prime minister’s maths to 18 plan and a bleak picture for the recruitment of maths teachers.
Last year, the target for the number of trainee maths teachers needed was missed by 37 per cent, a wider margin than the previous year’s 12 per cent shortfall.
Teacher recruitment
The government missed its target for recruitment of secondary teacher trainees overall by 50 per cent last year.
Meanwhile, the number of state school teachers leaving the profession hit its highest rate in four years in the academic year 2021-22, with 1 in 10 (43,997) recorded as having quit the classroom.
Trainees on the new TDA will spend around 40 per cent of their time studying for their degree with an accredited teacher training provider and gain Qualified Teacher Status, without having to pay tuition fees.
The DfE has said evidence from the one-cohort pilot will be used to inform the future of the programme.
It has also said providers and employing schools will be able to develop and run TDA courses “without additional funding within the same timeframes as the pilot”.
Maths teacher shortage
The plan is for a new four-year TDA to be focused on “teaching and pedagogy”, linked to a “subject specialism”.
The DfE and the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) are working with “an employer-led trailblazer group” to ensure the TDA meets the needs of schools. The group is being chaired by the South Farnham Educational Trust.
In a statement, the trust said: “The TDA presents an ideal opportunity for talented professionals without a degree to pursue their dream of teaching.
“The opportunity to gain QTS and a degree through the new TDA would enable our trust to invest in talented individuals early in their career and grow them into outstanding teachers of the future.
“The TDA allows individuals to earn a salary while completing their teacher training, supporting those who may not have the financial means to pursue a traditional university-based teacher training programme.”
Labour on teacher recruitment
In response to the announcement, Bridget Phillipson MP, Labour’s shadow education secretary, said: “This measure is mere window dressing from a Conservative government that has overseen a mass exodus of teachers from our classrooms.
“Teachers are leaving in their droves, while too few are being recruited - the result of the Conservatives destroying the crucial relationship between government and schools.
“Labour will reset that relationship and invest in recruiting thousands of expert teachers to drive high and rising standards in our state schools.”
