The recruitment of teachers and leaders onto government-funded National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) is still far off the Department for Education’s three-year target, new data published today has revealed.
The DfE’s ambition is to deliver 150,000 NPQ participant places over three years from autumn 2021 until the end of the 2023-24 academic year.
However, at the end of the second year in the three-year target, the DfE has recorded just 63,454 funded NPQ course starts in the academic years 2021-22 and 2022-23 - far under half of the target (42 per cent).
The DfE launched the reformed NPQ courses in the autumn of 2021.
Since October 2021, fully-funded scholarships have been available to teachers and leaders working in state-funded educational settings to participate in NPQ courses.
A report published in January this year revealed that NPQ providers believed there were “multiple factors” for the lower recruitment, but that “it was primarily due to Covid-19 and the significant strain that this continues to place upon an already-stretched sector”.
ECF mentor numbers far below ECT figures
Today’s data also revealed that 19,368 mentors were trained for provider-led, Early Career Framework (ECF)-based induction in 2022-23.
This is a 28 per cent decrease on the 26,713 trained in 2021-22.
There have been 52,939 early career teachers (ECTs) enrolled in the ECF over the last two years.
The framework aimed for ECTs to be mentored on a one-to-one basis when it was first launched in 2021 in order to “improve support for ECTs”.
It is not known how many mentors who have been trained over the two years are still actively involved in the ECF.
This year was the first year that there were two cohorts of ECTs enrolled on the ECF after the first year of the national roll-out of the ECF in September 2021.
Schools minister Nick Gibb said: “It’s good to see thousands of teachers enrolling on the ECF.
“We’ve made sure that teachers starting their career today are supported by record levels of school funding, world-class training and the highest starting salary ever.
“Raising standards in our schools is a longstanding priority of this government.
“We know that good teachers deliver good outcomes. Providing the right training is critical to ensuring there is an excellent teacher for every child.”
