The government’s plan for a Teacher Degree Apprenticeship (TDA) scheme could “pose risks to the quality of teaching provision” and “undermine” the profession, headteachers’ leaders have warned.
Further development of the TDA is being “unduly rushed to meet an arbitrary deadline to recruit from September 2024”, and the plan should be put on hold, the NAHT school leaders’ union said.
In a consultation response seen by Tes, the NAHT also said that the proposals are “clearly not ready to roll out to the initial teacher training (ITT) market” and should be paused, “pending a full review and engagement with the profession on the failure of the Department for Education’s 2019 Recruitment and Retention Strategy”.
The TDA, details of which were announced last month, is set to be launched later this year as a pilot scheme, with a small number of schools and teacher training providers working with 150 apprentices teaching maths in secondary schools.
Teacher apprenticeship plan ‘not workable’
Under the DfE plan, training providers will bid to take part in the pilot and trainees will be recruited from this autumn to start their training the following year.
However, the NAHT urged caution over the rollout in its response to the government consultation on the proposals, which closes on Monday 25 March.
The NAHT said: “As currently drafted and envisaged, NAHT believes that mandating this qualification would pose risks to the quality of teaching provision for pupils and undermine the teaching profession.”
The union said that the lack of information about employment contracts or conditions of work indicates that the proposal is “insufficiently developed and far from ready to be approved”.
“Proposed implementation of these proposals is being unduly rushed to meet an arbitrary deadline to recruit from September 2024, long before key principles and wider issues have been settled, with too little formative engagement with the representatives of the profession,” it added.
The NAHT also raised concerns about the “variety” of experiences that would be available to apprentices and said it “does not believe that, as currently constructed, these proposals for a non-graduate apprenticeship route are workable or desirable”.
Consultation ‘entirely insufficient’
The union said that the “very short two-week consultation is entirely insufficient, given the magnitude of the change suggested”.
Concerns were also raised about the impact of existing teacher recruitment and retention pressures on the qualification.
The NAHT warned that leaders “may feel the need to put ‘a body’ in front of a class”, particularly in disadvantaged areas where schools struggle to recruit, or in schools facing financial pressures, leading to poor quality teaching or the “misuse of unqualified apprentices”.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), which is part of the “trailblazer group” involved in the development of the TDA, also called for “clarity” on the terms and conditions for the new TDA roles so that schools can “plan their staffing structures”.
In its consultation response, published today, the ASCL also suggested that the list of apprentice duties should be “tightened up”, calling for it to be “made clear that apprentices should not be required to undertake work that does not require the professional skills and judgement of a qualified teacher”.
Sara Tanton, deputy director of policy at the ASCL, said: “It’s important to remember that this will only be the right route for a small number of employers, as there are only very marginal gains to be had, given the investment needed from them in terms of the apprentice’s salary and time required from existing staff over the four-year period, against the benefits they may later accrue.”
She added that this “will likely be reflected in the relatively low number of apprenticeships available each year”.
The NAHT said it had not engaged with the trailblazer group that designed the TDA because it thought it “innapropriate”. The union said it was “clear” there was “fault in the trailblazer process, which has resulted in these proposals being brought forward with indecent haste and without any proper consultation with representative bodies or the wider sector”.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Those completing a Teacher Degree Apprenticeship will achieve the same high-quality, subject-specialist degree and qualified teacher status as other initial teacher training routes, whilst having the opportunity to earn while they learn and avoid student debt.”
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