Two universities will deliver the new fast-track route into teaching in Scotland.

The Scottish government has announced the route will take six months, running from December to June, and will be delivered by the University of Dundee and the University of the Highlands and Islands.

It will aim to train between 20 and 50 graduates with a minimum 2:1 honours degree in chemistry, physics, home economics, maths and engineering.

The University of Dundee already delivers a fast-track course that puts science, technology, engineering and maths graduates in the classroom six months faster. It got underway this month.

The university partnership was chosen as the successful bidder for the £250,000 contract after a procurement exercise by the Scottish government, which was introduced in a bid to address the teacher recruitment crisis many schools face.

Stumbling blocks

The exercise has been mired in controversy because of concerns that it would allow the fast-track teacher training charity, Teach First, to get a foothold in Scotland.

However, Teach First, which puts new recruits in the classroom after an intensive six-week summer school, pulled out of the process towards the end of last year, saying it was concerned the project deadline was too short to develop the programme they wanted to introduce.

Another major stumbling block for the charity, however, was finding a Scottish university partner to work with.

It was a stipulation of the contract that any successful bidder had to work with a university partner, but Scottish institutions agreed unanimously not to work with them.

The government said the tender process involved Education Scotland and the General Teaching Council for Scotland in the assessment of the bids.

Teaching standards

The Education Secretary, John Swinney, said the route would maintain the traditionally high standard of teaching in Scotland.

He added: “Teachers are the foundation of Scotland’s education system and are crucial to our aspiration of closing the poverty-related attainment gap.

“We know that some areas face challenges in recruiting teachers in certain subject areas and this means that we need to think differently about how we attract new recruits into the classroom.

“This innovative proposal is designed to broaden the range of people entering the profession - providing a challenging, yet extremely rewarding, opportunity to train in rural schools within areas of high deprivation.”

GTCS chief executive Kenneth Muir said: “This new route into teaching is a welcome addition to the range of opportunities that exist to support people to become high-quality teachers. It offers additional flexibility while maintaining the strength and quality of input from Scottish initial teacher education universities.”

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