The first 15 graduates of Strathclyde’s two-year, part-time course are “absolutely outstanding”, Lynda Keith, the university’s director of primary education, says.
All have been working in schools as classroom assistants, nursery nurses or auxiliaries and have made the step up after gaining the support of their local authorities in Stirling, North and South Lanarkshire, Glasgow and Renfrewshire.
Mrs Keith said: “There is a big demand and it could be extended.”
She is hopeful an outreach course will shortly be set up in Dumfries and Galloway while an emerging Gaelic-medium course at Lews Castle College in Stornoway is a further addition.
“But it is a substantial investment for the local authorities,” she pointed out.
