The National Institute of Teaching (NIoT) has advised that potential teacher recruits who “just miss out” on a training spot should get extra help to apply again.

The teacher training and development provider also wants a national approach to “redirect” unsuccessful applicants to jobs as teaching assistants and school technicians, according to a paper seen by Tes.

And the policy paper on Labour’s manifesto pledge to recruit 6,500 new teachers calls for a system that “embraces ‘squiggly’ career paths” and “welcomes back” returners to the profession.

Details on the government’s plan to recruit more teachers into shortage subjects are still to be revealed, but the NIoT has set out six things it believes could help:

1. Further support for those who narrowly miss an ITT place

By August, almost 12,000 applicants to initial teacher training (ITT) in 2024-25 had been rejected, according to the latest DfE data published last month.

Despite these high rejection figures, the government missed its recruitment target for secondary teacher trainees by half last year, with experts warning in March that the government is “at risk of under-recruiting” secondary trainee teachers for 10 out of 17 subjects for next year.

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The NIoT paper said: “For candidates who would make great teachers but just miss out on a training place, there should be further support, such as longer training, to ensure we keep keen candidates who could become great teachers in the school system.”

A spokesperson confirmed this meant applicants would receive extra training to come back stronger in the following year’s application process.

Teacher training providers have previously warned of the consequences of a “legacy” of government “pressure” to ”recruit at all costs”.

2. ‘National approach’ needed to ‘redirect’ potential recruits

The NIoT said a national approach should be developed “to redirect...unsuccessful ITE applicants each year to alternative career pathways benefiting children, such as teaching assistants and school technicians”.

Melanie Renowden, NIoT chief executive, said: “There are definitely challenges in recruiting the right people to the teaching profession, but the reality is that many thousands of people apply to become teachers and are rejected”.

She added that the NIOT is “initiating research to better understand why people are being rejected, how our selection processes can be built around the best predictors of teaching success and what systematic barriers may be at play”.

“And for those applicants who have fallen just the wrong side of the selection line, could a better response be ‘not yet’ instead of an outright ‘no’?”

The union Unison previously warned that a “brewing” TA workload, recruitment and retention crisis is “connected to the crisis facing teachers”. It said there was a “clear-cut case for a national strategy for TAs”.

Tes revealed Labour plans to restore the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) last year.

3. Report on local ITE recruitment performance

The NIoT has also suggested “reporting on local ITE recruitment performance and incentivising providers to serve the parts of the country where teacher supply is most challenging” to support retention.

The paper suggested that such a move “could help address the specific needs of different areas”.

Research published last year revealed that a quarter of secondary teachers working in the government’s Education Improvement Areas were unlikely to be in the profession in five years.

Emma Hollis, chief executive officer of the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT), said that the problem of physical accessibility to training providers “is an issue of particular concern”.

She added that a controversial market review that saw all ITE providers go through a re-accreditation process, “led to the loss of a number of small, local providers and always had the potential to impact the supply of applicants from hard-to-reach, disadvantaged and rural areas who will not be able to travel longer distances, or pay for expensive means of transport”.

“Equally, rural schools, schools in hard-to-reach areas and schools in disadvantaged areas may not be attractive to applicants who have applied to a large provider who is geographically local to them, but at a distance to those schools,” Ms Hollis said.

4. ‘Squiggly’ carer paths should be embraced

The NIoT also called for a system “that embraces ‘squiggly’ career paths and values experience outside the classroom”.

And the organisation called for a system that “welcomes back those who have dipped out to try something else”.

5. NPQs: funded places for all schools

“Funded places should be made available to all schools to get access to NPQs”, the NIOT suggested.

In March, the DfE revealed that NPQs would no longer be fully funded by the government from next year.

6. Address apprenticeship issues to make the route attractive

The NIoT said that the delivery of teaching degree apprenticeships faced challenges, including “high administrative burdens and salary differentials”.

The paper said that addressing these issues “could make this route more attractive and accessible both for applicants and schools”.

6,500 more teachers could boost attainment by 50 per cent

The NIoT has also modelled the impact of 6,500 additional teachers on the workforce, suggesting the growth through recruitment and retention could result in a “50 per cent higher impact on student attainment”.

The findings were relative to a recruitment-only approach that did not target the most deprived communities.

The NIoT said the results were based on assumptions drawn from literature, and more research is needed.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Work is already underway to help deliver on our pledge to recruit 6,500 additional teachers across schools and colleges, including getting more teachers into shortage subjects, supporting areas that face recruitment challenges, and tackling retention issues.”