Written statement on Teacher Training - Jul 16

Nick Gibb (Minister of State for School Standards): In the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy published in January, the Government committed to help great people to become teachers and ensure high quality teacher training.

In support of this, I am introducing a new approach for assessing the numeracy and literacy of prospective teachers, which will replace the existing skills tests.

From October, teacher training providers will become responsible for ensuring that prospective teachers meet the high standards of literacy and numeracy required to be a teacher. Under this new system, trainees will be benchmarked against a defined set of skills they will be expected to have by the end of their initial teacher training.

This new system of provider-led assurance will be introduced at the end of the current recruitment cycle.