Nearly two-thirds of teachers taking NPQ qualifications said they found balancing the time needed to study with the demands of their existing jobs challenging, according to an evaluation of the program published by the Department for Education today.
The DfE report revealed that 65 per cent of teachers and heads in the 2017-18 cohort reported difficulties in balancing the time needed to complete their NPQ study and the demands of their day-to-day role.
They also said it was challenging to complete the NPQ work because of family responsibilities (23 per cent), and 19 per cent said that they struggled to get time off to take part.
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Teachers in primary schools and those undertaking higher levels of the qualification felt more supported by their school.
On average, participants attributed 51 per cent of their development while undertaking the qualification to the NPQ itself, with wider training and other experiences also contributing.
This was slightly lower at 49 per cent for those already in the role they were studying for, for secondary school participants (48 per cent) and male participants (48 per cent).
Suggestions for improvement
The report found that understanding how to complete assessment tasks was mentioned by teachers and heads as the most common challenge (43 per cent) related to the qualification itself.
The evaluation also revealed that participants felt the assessment process should be improved.
Participants also felt that school finance was “not adequately covered through the NPQs” and that participants would like “more opportunities to work with examples of real-life budgets in a face-to-face training environment”.
One-third of the NPQ participants were already in a new role by the time they had completed their qualification and over two-thirds of these participants agreed that their NPQ qualification contributed to them securing this new role.
When compared with control groups not taking the additional qualifications, the report found that the average salaries of participants’ taking NPQs for Middle Leadership (NPQML) were higher by £947, while those who did headship NPQs achieved a higher average salary of £2,191.
However, the report authors said that the higher salaries would likely have been achieved regardless of whether those candidates took part in the NPQ because they “already appeared to be on a different career trajectory to those in the control groups who did not complete these qualifications”.
Furthermore, it found that NPQ for Senior Leadership and NPQH participants were more likely to move into a more senior position than those not completing these qualifications.
Effect on retention
The study also found participants at all levels were less likely to leave the public teaching profession than those not completing the 2017 NPQs. In addition, NPQ middle leadership participants were 5.6 per cent less likely to change schools than those not completing the NPQs that year.
However, NPQH participants were 6.9 per cent more likely to change schools than those not completing NPQs.
A total of 2,415 teachers responded to questions via an online survey when they began their NPQ, while 837 took part in a survey conducted after they had completed their award.
In March of this year, the DfE revealed the “lead training providers” that would deliver new NPQs from September 2021, after it had announced £184 million of new funding for middle- and late-career national professional qualifications.
