A new teaching apprenticeship is set to be launched later this autumn, revolutionising the way schools recruit teachers while supporting more people to earn while they study for a degree.
The teacher degree apprenticeship will offer a high-quality, alternative route for people to become qualified teachers. This includes people who may not be able to take time out to study full-time for a degree such as teaching assistants or staff already working in schools, to access this route to a rewarding profession.
Burnley and Padiham’s MP Antony Higginbotham, a strong advocate for apprenticeships within the town has welcomed the announcement.
This is brilliant news during National Apprenticeship Week” he said. “I've seen first-hand the transformative impact that an apprenticeship has.
There are so many avenues already open to people wanting to learn skills which will set them up for the future. And so, expanding them into teaching has my full backing.
Trainees on the new teacher degree apprenticeship will spend around 40% of their time studying for their degree with an accredited teacher training provider, gain qualified teacher status and all tuition fees are paid for, so trainees won’t be saddled with the student debt.
Since 2010, over 5.7 million people have started their apprenticeship journey and the government is increasing investment in apprenticeships to £2.7 billion by 2024 to 2025, ensuring businesses have a pipeline of talent to grow the economy.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, said:
The teacher degree apprenticeship will open up the profession to more people, from those who want a career change to those who are looking for an earn and learn route without student debt.
It will be a game-changing opportunity for schools to nurture and retain talent from the ground up, helping apprentices to gain the knowledge and skills they need to teach future generations.
There are record numbers of teachers working in schools – up by 27,000 since 2010. To attract the brightest and the best teachers, the government is investing £196 million this academic year to get more teachers across key subjects.
The teacher degree apprenticeship will build on this by diversifying the route into teaching and ensuring schools across the country can continue to recruit the teachers they need so young people have access to the top teaching talent they need to succeed. There are almost 400,000 individual teaching assistants in state funded schools in England. The teacher degree apprenticeship will provide a new route for teaching assistants who do not have an existing degree to train to become a teacher and continue their career progression in the classroom.
To support schools to offer the new apprenticeship, the government will launch a pilot scheme working with a small number of schools and teacher training providers to fund up to 150 apprentices to work in secondary schools to teach maths. Training providers will bid to partake in the pilot and trainees will be recruited from this autumn and start their training the following year.
