The current FE teacher bursary scheme will not be continuing beyond the current academic year, the government has said. 

This applies to both the subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) funding and initial teacher education (ITE) bursaries, it said. 

The bursaries are worth £25,000 for trainee maths teachers with a 2:2 degree or better, or £15,000 for those training to teach English with a 2:1 or better.

Apprenticeships and skills minister Anne Milton said that since it was launched in 2013-14, the FE teacher training bursaries programme had supported over 1,900 graduates to become maths or English teachers in the college sector.

‘Broad range’

“This is great news, but we recognise that the sector needs to continue to recruit brilliant teachers with a broad range of qualifications, backgrounds and experiences - not just the graduates who can access the current bursaries,” she said. 

“To support this we are investing up to £20 million in new programmes designed to recruit and develop FE teachers. This includes our £5 million Taking Teaching Further scheme to support up to 150 industry professionals to work in FE, and our £8 million professional development offer to help the sector to prepare for the roll-out of new T levels from 2020.

“We are also exploring new approaches to supporting the recruitment and retention of teachers in FE - in both technical and academic subject areas - to reflect the sector’s changing needs as our transformation of technical education gathers pace.”

An Association of Colleges survey published last month found that more than half of colleges were experiencing staff shortages in maths, and a third were in need of English teachers.