In my 20-year career, I’ve been fortunate to work at all levels of education, from early years to higher. More recently I’ve worked with the Scottish government and as a senior lecturer in initial teacher education (ITE).

The years have been kind, but they have not been without frustration. I have been at the heart of developments in education, but as I find myself moving to a new role in finance and accounting, I’d like to share my parting thoughts on where we are - and what we must do to reinvigorate routes into teaching.

There has been much talk about new routes and the Scottish government has invested £1 million to explore options for increasing teacher numbers and fast-track new teachers into the classroom. We need this, notably in specialist disciplines such as design and technology. We also need more Catholic teachers at primary and secondary level.

England has many access routes, including the traditional university path, Teach First and School Direct. In Scotland, access routes include degree-programme entry only via undergraduate or postgraduate paths. In its ambition to explore new routes, the Scottish government has invited tenders for innovative ideas. Some organisations and programmes that exist in England would like to move north of the border. I believe this would be detrimental to Scottish education - and once that line is crossed, it would be difficult to go back.

Don’t get me wrong - these routes develop excellent teachers. But the statistics can be viewed through rose-tinted glasses. Don’t forget that Westminster’s Department for Education offers huge incentives through bursaries and golden handshakes, which don’t exist in Scotland. There are also poor recruitment levels and poor retention - a recent story showed that some Teach First recruits were more likely to head into private commercial and industrial sectors - and, surface-level learning often does not capture the deep pedagogical domain knowledge we want in new teachers.

Scotland is by no means perfect - I don’t think there is a perfect solution - and we can learn lessons from England. These routes have been tried and tested and they would not provide the silver bullet the Scottish government seeks. They may provide a short-term political win, but not the transformation we need.

The system is becoming increasingly fragmented. Universities that provide ITE are developing school-partnership models and flexible access routes into teaching, but they differ from one institution to the next and some will work better than others. I am both excited and nervous to see how this develops. There is significant potential but there are many dangers, too.

Cost efficiency, sustainability and an excellent student experience - covering deep learning, knowledge and skills - must be at the heart of what we do. This is why universities must remain central, with carefully designed mentoring programmes and school-experience models supporting professional learning. This, coupled with excellent working conditions and pay, will attract people into the profession. The government, meanwhile, needs to do far more: simply tweaking school and local-authority structures (as outlined in the recent Education Governance Review) and inviting multiple routes into teaching without due consideration of the longer-term good, will ultimately end in failure.

Staying flexible

We must address issues raised in the 2011 Graham Donaldson report Teaching Scotland’s Future. Revised, lower entry tariffs into universities to accommodate more people are essential. Many people would make excellent teachers, but academically they may not have the qualifications for a degree programme. This does not mean watering down attainment, but providing more opportunity and support for those wishing to pursue a teaching career who would otherwise be rejected.

Scotland’s colleges are in an excellent position to work with schools and universities. We need to capitalise on these relationships by, for example, providing the first years of an undergraduate degree at college and the final few years at university. Also, can help more young people move directly into college then university. More flexible movement between degree programmes would also smooth the way into fast-track teaching degree programmes.

We are not without ideas but scrambling about in small pockets of the system does not help. We need to move beyond closed-door discussions between government and deans of education. My advice to government is to bring all interested parties together - schools, colleges and universities - in a national debate, and to put all our cards on the table. Then we must develop a unique system for Scotland.

Lee Dunn is a University of Glasgow senior lecturer in education studies and technology and degree programme leader for technology education