The data provided by the DfE in the teacher profiles is very much at the headline level and has made direct comparisons with previous year more of a challenge except where the DfE has recalculated the data for earlier years. This blog looks at employment percentages by ethnic group and region of training.

The change in methodology introduced by the DfE in calculating completion rates for postgraduate students in ITT in 2021/22 has made a difference to the percentages of each ethnic grouping employed in state-funded schools. For comments on last year’s data under the previous methodology please see Disturbing profile data on new teachers | John Howson (wordpress.com)

For the latest DfE profiles see Initial teacher training performance profiles, Academic year 2021/22 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk)

Although the difference between the groups is smaller than under the previous methodology, there are still differences. The most notable is between the Asian Group and the White and Black groups; a difference of some 7% points.

Postgraduate trainee qualified teacher status and employment outcomes by ethnic group

Group	2017/18	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22
Total	80%	78%	74%	73%	75%
Asian	78%	73%	67%	64%	69%
Black	82%	81%	74%	71%	76%
Mixed	82%	81%	74%	71%	76%
Other	79%	75%	65%	66%	71%
White	81%	78%	74%	74%	76%
Unknown	78%	86%	80%	76%	80%

The ‘unknown’ grouping is the only one where under the new methodology the 2021/22 percentage is higher than the percentage in 2017/18. The increase for this grouping may be down to the larger numbers in the latest survey recorded as ‘unknown’.

Again, the lack of a breakdown between primary trainees, where trainees may have found that  jobs were more difficult to come by, and secondary sector trainees, where in most subjects the jobs advertised exceeded trainee numbers, makes it difficult to say much more about the overall outcomes for the sector. However, a percentage of the increases in employment percentages between 2020/21 and 2021/22 can be put down to the larger increase in secondary teacher vacancies between the two years.

There is little difference in employment outcomes for other groups, with women having a slightly higher percentage employed in state-funded schools than men, and older trainees a slightly high percentage than younger trainees.

Postgraduate trainee outcomes by region for the 2021/22 academic year

	Total trainees	Percentage awarded QTS	Percentage of those awarded QTS teaching in a state-funded school
England	31,747	93%	75%
North East	1,261	87%	66%
North West	4,840	93%	64%
Yorkshire and The Humber	3,358	90%	72%
East Midlands	2,134	92%	78%
West Midlands	3,346	93%	73%
East of England	2,531	94%	85%
London	7,319	94%	81%
South East	4,574	94%	78%
South West	2,384	93%	77%

London and the Home Counties were the regions where the highest percentages of those awarded QTS were likely to be employed in a state-funded school. This is despite the fact that these areas also contain the largest percentage of private schools.

Some of the rationale for reducing trainee numbers in the north of England is obvious from the employment outcomes. Assuming that trainees wish to join the state sector, the fact that only two thirds of those with QTS in both the North East and North West regions were in employment does suggest that there was a question about the distribution of places across the country. The reduction of places in the South West after the recent review, and especially in Devon, does seem harder to explain from just the employment statics alone.