A new postgraduate teaching apprenticeship to offer talented
graduates an alternative route into the profession has been
announced today (19 October) by Education Secretary .
Developed in partnership with the sector, the new apprenticeship
will provide hands-on experience for new recruits and a chance to
learn from excellent, experienced teachers during training, as
well as the incentive of potential employment as a qualified
teacher at the end of the apprenticeship course.
The apprenticeship, which launches in September 2018, will mirror
the entry criteria and high-quality course content currently
required of all other teacher trainees and will give schools
across the country the opportunity to use the apprenticeship to
recruit and train new teachers in-house.
Education Secretary, , said:
Getting the best people to train as teachers and into our
classrooms is a crucial part of giving every child the high
quality education deserve. This new route will provide another
pathway for talented graduates into a profession that will give
them the chance to change lives for the better on a daily
basis.
The new teaching apprenticeship will run in parallel with School
Direct Salaried (SDS) training in 2018 that already allows
graduates to train while on the job. All apprentices will be paid
as unqualified teachers.
Schools who are not eligible for the apprenticeship levy, or who
require additional funds, will receive government funding to
cover up to 90 per cent of training costs.
CEO of South Farnham School Educational Trust, Sir Andrew Carter,
said:
The postgraduate apprenticeship route into teaching will be
greatly welcomed by the profession. The opportunity for more
graduates to be trained within the school setting has the
potential to increase the number of applicants. Working
alongside great teachers and learning at first hand is the best
way to create great teachers.
Chairing the Employers Group, who put the programme together,
was a great privilege. The expertise, enthusiasm and wisdom of
the group focussed all that is best in the educational world.
Everyone was, and is, totally focussed on the goal which is to
create a strong, plentiful and sustainable flow of recruits
into this great and noble profession.
Executive Director of the Universities Council for the Education
of Teachers (UCET), James Noble Rogers, and Executive Director,
National Association of School Based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT),
Emma Hollis, said:
We are pleased that the new apprenticeship will be delivered in
partnership between schools and accredited Initial Teacher
Training providers and will be subject to the same regulatory
framework as other ITT courses. That represents a good outcome
from the perspective of the employer-led group which UCET and
NASBTT were happy to be represented on.
In the future we would like to see the apprenticeship developed
to reflect any changes to Qualified Teacher Status and the
rationalisation of some of the rules applying to
apprenticeships generally which we don’t think necessarily
translate well for ITT.
To ensure apprentices are ready to enter the classroom full-time
at the end of their apprenticeship, schools have helped set
assessment criteria to give them greater oversight of the
training of prospective members of staff.
Applications for Initial Teacher Training open through UCAS on
October 26, allowing applicants to convert their place to an
apprenticeship at a later date.
The development of this apprenticeship is part of the
government’s commitment to ensure there are 3 million high
quality apprenticeship starts by 2020.
As part of the plan to get excellent teachers into the schools
that need them most, the government is also piloting a new
programme to reimburse student loan repayments for teachers in
the early years of their careers. Around 800 modern foreign
language and 1,700 science teachers a year will be eligible for
this pilot scheme.
