The proportion of new teachers finding full-time permanent employment has doubled in the past year, new figures reveal.
However, one in 10 new teachers was still unemployed almost a year after gaining full registration.
The figures come from the latest General Teaching Council for Scotland’s (GTCS) employment survey of new teachers, carried out in March and published today.
The body conducts two surveys a year into the employment status of the newest recruits to teaching, one in the autumn after the completion of the probationer year in June, and another in the spring.
This spring’s survey, however, comes with a health warning owing to the 16 per cent response rate - the lowest level to date.
Nevertheless, the GTCS claims respondents were “broadly representative of the profession”, with the results showing that 45 per cent of new teachers had secured full-time permanent jobs this March, up from 25 per cent the previous year.
This is the highest proportion of new entrants securing full-time permanent jobs since spring 2008, when 48 per cent of new teachers secured this type of work.
Those finding part-time permanent contracts also grew, the survey indicates, from 4 per cent last spring, to 5 per cent this spring.
Meanwhile, the number of new teachers being employed under full-time temporary contracts fell from 34 per cent to 25 per cent.
Last year, the growth in temporary contracts for new teachers triggered warnings about the stability of the profession. This year, GTCS chief executive Anthony Finn was more optimistic, describing the findings as “very encouraging”.
However, 10 per cent of new teachers had failed to find employment of any kind, the survey shows, and only 1 per cent had joined the supply list. This is the lowest figure recorded by the GTCS and comes at a time when councils are struggling to find enough short-term supply teachers.
emma.seith@tess.co.uk
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