A small group of adult students sit in a science lab discovering the workings of basic chemistry. The class is less about grasping the complex theory of atomic reactions than it is about learning how to learn.

Why do pupils perform so well in science up to the age of seven only to lose it when they leave primary school? As the last national tests showed, 91 per cent of seven-year-olds performed up to expectation, compared with 87 per cent at 11 and 66 per cent at 14.

The adults discuss what they think makes youngsters tick and how it might be possible to motivate them more by bringing the textbooks to life.

This is the first week of the new access-to-primary-teaching programme at Merton College in south London. Very few colleges offer an entry-level programme of this kind and Merton believes it has found a niche in the market.

Timetabled classes from 9.30am to 2.30pm make Merton’s course a family-friendly one. Parents of pre-school children can drop them off at a childminder before college and collect them before the end of the school day: there is even funding available for childcare places.

These are the people who must be recruited if England and Wales are to overcome the teacher crisis. The National Association of Head Teachers survey revealed there were 4,600 vacancies at the start of term, and three out of four heads are worried that the quality of teaching has deteriorated.

There is a critical shortage of people in their 30s and 40s with the maturity and teaching skills. Ministers are increasingly looking to FE for help with the solution.

Bev Giarraputo, the head of Merton College’s access and community studies, says: “Tower Hamlets is doing something similar and I believe Southwark is too, but we’ve no local competition. We’re recruiting from south-west London right up the Northern line to the inner boroughs.”

Ranging in age from 21 to 40-plus, students have their fees paid for by the Learning and Skills Council. And in one year’s time most, if not all of them, will be starting a degree at a higher education college that will lead to a career in the classroom. The full-time course validated by the London Open College Network is open to anyone over the age of 21 who lacks formal qualifications.

Study is supplemented with work placements where students will work alongside teachers, but not teaching practice. Merton College’s marketing has been aimed at local schools where they have enrolled a number of learning support assistants - usually mothers who help out in the classroom.

But the group is much more varied than mothers of young children; it includes career changers who have been out of education for a long time and need to get up to speed as well as national vocational qualification students wanting to making the next move towards a professional qualification.

Mark Webley, a former call centre operator, has secured a hardship fund to help support his studies. Mark, 39, says: “It’s the first time I’ve been back in full-time education since I left school at 17.”

Barbara McLaughlin left her job with an international bank in the Cayman Islands and is paying her own way. She explains her reasons for making the move.

“Teaching is something I love, and I’ve always wanted to do it. Teachers don’t get well paid but now that I am financially secure I’ll go for it.”

The entire group is similarly upbeat about prospects for a career in teaching - a tribute, perhaps, to the Government’s advertising campaign.

Mrs Giarraputo explains that her course is still very much a pilot and that she is currently building links with Kingston University and the Roehampton Institute - two of London’s biggest teacher-training providers.

Besides concentrating on improving on a good basic level of maths and English, the course aims to prepare students for higher education.

She says: “We get skills like note-taking, essay writing and exam technique up to scratch. But the students have got what it takes - we are careful who we select. Is this a pool of hidden talent? Definitely!” At present the intake is small - just eight students have enrolled. But on the other hand Mrs Giarraputo was given the green light late last term, leaving insufficient time to organise a marketing campaign. For all this, the college believes that numbers will increase rapidly next year and is highly committed both to access courses and to increasing numbers of ethnic students and other disadvantaged groups.

With steady numbers of 16 to 19-year-olds, adult provision has been one of the areas of fastest growth. The college’s access-to-nursing course has been running for five years, has 130 students and links with St George’s Hospital in Tooting, south London, and a Surrey healthcare consortium. There is a parallel course for social workers.

Two related courses run by Merton, a City amp; Guilds Certificate for classroom assistants and a level 3 in nursery nursing, are expected to feed into this new entry-level qualification.

Merton’s experience with access courses is that lack of qualifications is no bar to a professional career where students are mature, highly motivated, and temperamentally suited. A varied life experience or even a patchwork of jobs is seen as an advantage, and maturity counts.

The motivation for wanting to teach is revealing. Jennifer Currin, a working mother, says: “It’s the satisfaction of seeing kids achieve over the years.”

Twenty-one-year-old Aaron Evans sees teaching as a challenge.

“When you see children as young as eight smoking in the street you know something’s going wrong somewhere. They need new teachers like us to put a bit of life back into the profession. We’re new teachers for a new century.”