After two evidence sessions of their inquiry into recruitment and retention by the House of Commons Education Select Committee there are a number of interesting themes that need teasing out in more detail during the summer recess. Teacher recruitment, training and retention – Committees – UK Parliament

On the topic of recruitment, I have thought of these issues, in no particular order:

Linking recruitment to need

There has been talk of ‘cold spots’ and ‘certain schools’ finding recruitment (and retention) more of a challenge in the evidence sessions, but the evidence base has been limited. There is more certainty over the subjects with a lack of recruitment, although the committee has not delved into the cumulative effect of years of under-recruitment in some subjects. How many schools, for instance lack a properly qualified teacher of physics? The DfE can provide that information from the School Workforce Census. Also, the providers could have said how many of the physics ITT graduates start work in the private school sector or the FE sector in sixth form colleges rather than in schools?

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The Select Committee should ask Ministers about their policy. Oxfordshire would provide an excellent case study of demand from 80 secondary schools, but limited ITT numbers across all subjects.

I did some analysis last Christmas that could from the basis for a national study A Christmas holiday read about Teacher Supply | John Howson (wordpress.com)

New graduate numbers

New young undergradues still remain the most important source of entrants into ITT. However, this age-group has been experiencing something of a demographic downturn that will, fortunately, reverse in a few years’ time.  Higher Education has compensated by enrolling more undergraduates in their 20s.

• Over the five-year time series, the proportion of first year students aged 20 and under has decreased by 5 percentage points, from 42% to 37%. Despite this change, this age group continues to be the largest. Higher Education Student Statistics: UK, 2020/21 – Student numbers and characteristics | HESA

The implications for teaching of any change in the profile of new graduates needs to be understood, as does the relationship between the location of undergraduate courses in different subjects and entry into ITT. Again, physics makes an interesting case study. Some of the physics degree courses in London are not linked to a college with an ITT provider. Teach First can link with these colleges, but more could be achieved in the field of linking courses with ITT marketing programmes.

Applications and acceptances

The current DfE application process provides less data than the UCAS system it replaced. There are no monthly numbers around applications and offers by either gender or ethnicity making trends difficult to identify until outcome data are produced. This is an easy win for the committee to recommend a better dashboard on applications and offers. As the second panel identified, there are issues with discrimination in both ITT and teacher recruitment at all levels from classroom to head teacher’s study.

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Training salary or bursaries?

Regular readers of this blog will know that I favour a training salary for all postgraduate entrants into teaching rather than the present confused, bursary; salary or no support shambles that changes on an annual basis. Could anyone image the Ministry of Defence telling the army to pay cadets at Sandhurst according to how easy it was to recruit to their corps? No support for cavalry regiments, but a big bursary for engineers? I cannot see that happening.

However, partly, I suspect because of the numbers, teaching has a muddled approach across the three routes:

Undergraduate

Postgraduate non-classroom

Postgraduate classroom

A training salary would at least make marketing simpler, and mean career changers would always be sure of an income. When introduced in the early 200s it produced an increase in interest in teaching.

The undergraduate route has been withering on the vine, and before looking at new routes such as undergraduate apprenticeships for graduate professions there should be an understanding as to whether the undergraduate degree has now replaced ‘A’ levels as the last level of pre-career entry qualification. If so, then the new route may not be successful.

Does the sector really wish to reinvent the pupil teacher role? And, will it largely attract those unable to afford the cost of a university degree?

The suggestion that different placements can affect costs for trainees needs to be investigated. In the past, placement costs were borne by providers to ensure a level playing field. The random nature of the travel costs makes them unfair for individual trainees to bear. I researched issue this for the former ATL in the 1990s on two separate occasions.

Employment based routes into teaching

Are we offering fewer employment-based routes into teaching than a decade ago? Teach First is now the dominant salaried route into teaching. School Direct (salaried) has failed as a route into the profession and graduate apprenticeships are in their infancy. Both need closer monitoring to see how they are being used across different sectors and subjects.

In 2009/2010 EBIT (employment-based routes) accounted for 5,800 trainees, according to the DfE census. In the 2022/23 ITT census there were 2,679 trainees on three salaried routes (590 School Direct Salaried; 759 apprenticeships and 1,330 Teach First). This would seem to suggest that either opportunities for career changers needing a salary to train as a teacher have declined by several thousand or the offer is no longer attractive enough to entice career changers into teaching.

Earlier this year, I wrote the following:

“Applications are being sustained by an increase in career changers. Candidate numbers in the age groups below 25 continue to fall, with just 4,027 candidates in the 21 or under age grouping. By contrast, this year there are already 600 candidates in the 50-54 age grouping compared with 449 in March 2022. The number of candidates recorded as over the age of 65 has increased from 12 in March 2022 to 25 this March! The bulk of the career changers seem likely to be men. The number in this group has increased from 6,525 in the March 2022 data to 8,037 this March. However, the number recruited has fallen from 562 to 419, perhaps indicating that many of these older men are in the group applying from overseas?” Teaching not attracting new graduates | John Howson (wordpress.com)

The mention of overseas applicants is important, as the 2023ITT application round has seen most of its growth in applications for ‘rest of the world’ and this has important implications for the outcome of the round if these applicants cannot obtain a visa, even if offered a place.

Some other issues

School there be subject quotas for the primary sector ITT numbers to ensure a spread of expertise?

Does the present application system discriminate against those that apply later in the recruitment round, and does that fact have implications for under-represented groups and their patterns of applications?

Should the DfE consider funding Recruitment Strategy Managers on a regional basis once more?

Do we need a unique job number to be better able to track vacancies?

With a largely female workforce should the level of departures each year for maternity leave be predictable and does the resignations total include those taking maternity leave?

And the big one – does the market model of placing teachers in schools work? Are we returning to an employ-driven model of teacher supply that existed as the dominant model before the Robbins report?