Heads are to ask the government to tackle staffing shortages by approving the first apprenticeship for teachers.
The scheme would allow A-level students to join the profession without going to university. It is being proposed by the Teaching Schools Council, which believes that a teaching apprenticeship could play a crucial role in attracting people from less affluent backgrounds into the profession.
Teaching Schools Council member Stephen Munday told TES that it was hoped that the apprenticeship could help schools in more disadvantaged areas to recruit staff.
“I can see how that for some parts of the country this could be a very positive route-way for youngsters who might not necessarily take seriously the possibility of a degree. And for schools where recruiting is tough, they would see it as a positive,” the chief executive of Cambridgeshire’s Cam Academy Trust said. “There is a serious win-win here.”
The apprenticeship would be the first school-based teacher-training route that was available to participants straight after A levels. It would lead to a degree and qualified teacher status.
If given the go-ahead, the new apprenticeship scheme would mean that prospective teachers could be paid while they trained and worked towards a degree, which would drive down the cost of qualification.
There seems to be a great appetite for some apprenticeship route into teaching
Earlier this month, Department for Education figures revealed that the proportion of students qualifying for free school meals who had gone on to university had started to fall after tuition fees were tripled to £9,000 a year in 2013-14.
The apprenticeship is expected to be submitted for government approval next month by a partnership of training providers led by the Teaching Schools Council.
Sir Andrew Carter, chief executive of South Farnham school, who is heading the apprenticeship bid on behalf of the council, said: “There seems to be a great appetite for some apprenticeship route into teaching.
“About 50 schools have contacted me - some are teaching schools representing alliances.”
A teaching assistant apprenticeship is already being developed but this would be the first apprenticeship for teachers.
Many schools could find themselves paying towards apprenticeships whether or not the teaching scheme is approved. From April, every employer with a wage bill over £3 million a year will have to pay another 0.5 per cent of their total wage bill to government in an apprenticeship levy.
Levy funding opportunity
But if a teaching apprenticeship is created, schools could apply for funding from the levy to help pay for the training under the scheme. Schools would have to pay the salaries of their apprentices.
Details of classroom responsibilities for the proposed apprenticeships have yet to be drawn up. But Sir Andrew said that an apprentice could work alongside a teacher, as teaching assistants do. Once they gained experience, they could take lessons under supervision, as with other trainee teachers.
“It will be an all-graduate profession,” he said. “It won’t change that, but some could join at different points. This is meant to be an additional route into teaching. It is not intended to replace current routes into teaching. It is meant to make a route in for different people, for some people who need to work.
“There are no student loans involved in this. Schools will need to recognise the apprentice route will bring some costs, but the benefits are that it will bring in employees a little earlier than perhaps before who could work at an apprentice level in the school.”
