Schools minister Nick Gibb says the number of teacher training applications are up 12 per cent, and that “talented” people from industry are among those expressing interest in plugging the shortage of maths and physics teachers.

The minister made his comments during education questions in the Commons this afternoon, after he was asked by Sir Christopher Chope, Conservative MP for Christchurch, if the government would second people from industry to fill teaching vacancies.

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Sir Christopher said: “Sadly many people are losing their jobs or are threatened with redundancy, and we know there is a massive shortage of teachers in physics and maths in particular, so might my right-honourable friend enable schools to second people from industry to fill those vacancies so that people with talent can fill the vacuum.”

Mr Gibb replied: “The organisation Now Teach, set up by Lucy Kellaway, which we support, has seen a huge surge in interest from people such as [those] my honourable friend suggested. It helps career changers to come into teaching, and we’ve also seen a 12 per cent increase in applications to teacher training in the last quarter to the end of May.”