Plans for a new Teacher Degree Apprenticeship (TDA) have been announced by the government and will be launched this autumn.
The TDA - which will be run as a four-year course - will target teaching assistants and career changers as potential recruits.
The announcement of a new route into teaching comes amid a spiralling supply crisis and after the government missed its target for recruitment of secondary teacher trainees by 50 per cent this year.
From autumn this year, providers will be able to recruit onto the new TDA and a standard setting out course details is set to be published in spring 2024, subject to the approval of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.
The first apprentices on this route will start in September 2025.
The government is running a funded pilot scheme of the TDA for maths teachers as the qualification route is launched.
It has said evidence from this funding pilot will be used to inform considerations on any future expansions of funding grants for the TDA.
Why has the government introduced the TDA?
Through the TDA, candidates will gain an undergraduate degree and qualified teacher status while being employed in a school.
Currently, apprenticeships are offered as a teacher training route, but only at postgraduate level. A degree apprenticeship will enable students to get a degree while they work.
Education secretary Gillian Keegan has said that she hopes the TDA will allow more people to consider teaching as a career option than was previously possible, including career changers.
Ms Keegan told Tes last month that people who “already have families and bills...don’t have the option of going and sitting for three years, not earning money”. But the TDA will make the move possible.
The education secretary also hopes the route will appeal to support staff already working in schools, adding that “we’ve got 59,600 more teaching assistants since 2011, so many of them could potentially want to try this route”.
Who can do a TDA?
The TDA will be available both to those beginning their careers and those who are interested in pursuing a career in teaching. It will be available for people to train as both primary and secondary teachers.
Anyone without a degree will be able to do the apprenticeship and it will allow them to learn and gain a degree without student debt.
The government has said that it expects applications to open from autumn 2024 for training to start in the autumn of 2025.
How much will apprentices earn?
The DfE has said that salaries “will reflect trainee responsibilities at each stage of their course”, but the details of exact figures are yet to be announced.
Unlike some other routes into teaching, apprenticeship training and qualifications will be fully funded for the apprentices.
What is the secondary maths funding pilot?
The Department for Education has said that as the TDA is launched, it will run and fund a pilot scheme for secondary maths teacher trainees.
As part of the pilot, a small number of schools and teacher training providers will work with 150 apprentices.
The focus of the TDA pilot on maths teachers comes after prime minister Rishi Sunak’s maths-to-18 plan that culminated in the announcement of an Advanced British Standard (ABS), which would “bring together A levels and T levels into a new, single qualification”.
There are also concerns over the supply of maths teachers.
This year, the target for the number of trainee maths teachers needed was missed by 37 per cent.
The DfE said it will work with pilot providers to monitor and support course development, candidate recruitment and delivery. Evidence from the funding pilot will be used to inform any future expansions of additional funding for the TDA.
The government has said schools that employ trainees as part of the funding pilot will receive financial incentives to support trainee salary costs.
Who are the pilot providers?
In March, the government announced the eight pilot providers selected to run the TDA maths pilot.
The DfE will work with pilot providers to monitor and support course development, candidate recruitment and delivery. Evidence from the funding pilot will be used to inform any future expansions of additional funding for the TDA.
The following providers have been selected to run the TDA maths funding pilot:
- Nottingham Trent University
- Staffordshire University, in partnership with the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Teacher Education Collective (SSTEC)
- University College London (UCL)
- University of Brighton
- University of Huddersfield
- University of Nottingham
- University of Wolverhampton
- Xavier Teach Southeast, in partnership with Sussex University
Providers and schools can offer other TDA courses
The DfE has also said that providers and schools can design and deliver TDA courses on any subject at the same time as the pilot. However, schools will not have access to additional funding outside of the funding pilot.
It is unclear at this stage how many providers will opt into this.
The DfE has said that employers will have access to the apprenticeship levy to fund training and assessment costs for the TDA.
Concerns over the TDA
The TDA has faced criticism from some sector leaders, with the NAHT school leaders’ union claiming the scheme could “pose risks to the quality of teaching provision” and “undermine” the profession.
In its response to the government consultation, the NAHT said that 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 Association of School and College Leaders, 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”.
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