Increasingly uncompetitive pay, high workload and a lack of flexible working are “much more likely” to be driving prospective graduates away from teaching than a shift in young people’s career preferences, according to research published today.
Analysis by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) warns that maintaining the status quo “risks further entrenching the teacher supply crisis and deteriorating the quality of education provided to pupils”.
The NFER says ensuring that teaching is competitive with other jobs “should be a central plank” of the new government’s plans to address staff shortages.
The analysis comes as teachers and school leaders in England wait to hear the government’s pay offer for September, with education secretary Bridget Phillipson confirming that a decision will not be made this week.
Figures published in December suggest that just 50 per cent of the government’s initial teacher training target for secondary subjects was reached last year, down from 57 per cent in 2022-23.
What is putting graduates off teaching?
The analysis, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, used survey data to explore the question of how shifting career motivations might be contributing to the teacher supply challenge.
The paper, authored by NFER school workforce lead Jack Worth and NFER economist Dawson McLean, concludes: “Overall, we find there is little evidence that young people’s career motivations in the UK have significantly changed over the last decade to the detriment of teacher supply.
“Our findings suggest interest in teaching among full-time students has varied over time. However, the proportion of young people who say they want to be a teacher has been generally consistent in the decade since 2011.
“There has also been a slight increase in the proportion of young people who consider pro-social factors such as ‘helping others’ and ‘contributing to society’ to be very important factors for their career choices.”
Young people born in 1997 and later (commonly defined as Generation Z) are slightly more likely to fit the motivational profile of a future teacher than Millennials, according to the report.
The report adds: “The findings therefore suggest that there is no evidence of any significant drop in interest either in teaching or in the fundamental ‘pro-social’ nature of the job.
“Instead the findings affirm that addressing the deteriorating attractiveness of the teaching profession is key to solving the teacher shortage challenge.”
Researchers looked at data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study and the British Household Panel Survey to assess what jobs young people wanted and what factors they would consider to be an important part of their future careers.
The analysis concludes: “Taken together, our modelling and analysis suggests there is little evidence graduates have become less interested in ‘pro-social’ careers in recent years.”
Regarding the issue of teacher pay for next year, the government has yet to publish the recommendations of the School Teachers’ Review Body or its decision on whether to accept them.
On Tuesday Ms Phillipson said the government would not be announcing its pay award for teachers this week - which is the last week of term for many schools in England.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Despite worsening teacher shortages posing a real threat to educational standards, there is cause for optimism as a result of this report.
“NFER’s analysis suggests the number of young people interested in teaching, and similar careers that benefit others, is broadly stable or even slightly increasing.
“There is therefore no reason why the government’s ambition of recruiting 6,500 teachers cannot be achieved or surpassed, providing the right steps are taken to put teaching on an equal footing with other graduate professions.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Recruiting and keeping great teachers in our classroom is vital to improving life chances for all children.
“Work has already begun to urgently recruit 6,500 new teachers. We will focus on getting more teachers into shortage subjects, supporting areas that face the largest recruitment challenges and retaining the brilliant teachers already in classrooms.”
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