AS someone who is already in relatively secure full-time employment, I have found that making the financial step into teacher training to be a very difficult one.
While the pound;6,000 training salary for postgraduate teaching courses may be a tidy sum for young graduates with few financial commitments it is less appealing for someone with a young family like myself.
Earlier this year, I found out about the Teacher Training Agency’s graduate teaching programme (GTP). I successfully applied to have my details kept on a database which can be accessed by local schools. But I have made approaches to several schools only to find that he headteachers had very little knowledge of the GTP. This is despite regional and local seminars to which they had been invited, as well as information packs sent to every school.
If there is a national shortage of teachers one must ask the question: why aren’t schools more receptive to schemes such as the GTP?
Unless schools become more receptive to initiatives such as the GTP then the current crisis can only escalate. The GTP is potentially an excellent opportunity for people with a genuine interest in becoming qualified teachers.
Jonathan Graham
27 Rosebery Road
Mount Pleasant
Exeter, Devon
