A new apprenticeship presents a 鈥済lorious鈥 opportunity for those without a degree to train to teach, will help bring under-represented groups into the profession and give schools a much-needed option to spend levy funding. But proponents of the move face an uphill battle to convince sceptics about the quality of the route, as unions warn it must not erode teachers鈥 pay and conditions. So, will the proposed non-graduate apprenticeship provide a solution to the sector鈥檚 long-standing recruitment issues? Schools Week takes a look… How will it work? The government announced last month that a long-awaited apprenticeship route into teaching for non-graduates will launch next year. Robert Halfon The four-year course, which would see apprentices achieve both a degree and qualified teacher status, will be piloted with 鈥渦p to鈥 150 trainee maths teachers from September 2025, before a wider rollout. Apprentices will spend around 40 per cent of their time studying and the rest of the time in the classroom. Ministers particularly want to see teaching assistants trained up via the route. Robert Halfon, the skills minister, told Schools Week that the scheme 鈥渨ill help change the culture in schools around apprenticeships鈥. He said those completing the apprenticeship 鈥渨ill achieve the same high-quality, subject-specialist degrees and qualified teacher status as any other initial teacher training route, while having the opportunity to earn while they learn and avoid student debt鈥. There will be one apprenticeship standard, but separate courses for different phases and subjects. Each will encompass an apprenticeship and a degree which leads to the award of qualified teacher status. The maths teacher degree apprenticeship will be the first to launch, but those designing the qualification expect it to eventually be rolled out to primary and the full suite of secondary subjects. Who鈥檚 leading on it? The route has been developed by a 鈥渢railblazer group鈥 of trusts, teacher trainers, universities and sector bodies. It is chaired by the South Farnham Educational Trust, which runs 10 schools in Surrey and Hampshire. The trust co-designed the existing postgraduate teaching apprenticeship, which now accounts for 4 per cent of trainees recruited nationally. CEO Sir Andrew Carter said would-be teachers now often start as teaching assistants to 鈥済ain that experience so that, when they actually convert to the apprenticeship programme, they know they want to do it鈥. The Delta Academies Trust is another trailblazer. Trustee Sean Cavan, who worked for decades at the education department of Sheffield Hallam University, said the apprenticeship would provide 鈥渁nother route which is not fundamentally different at all to the current QTS programmes鈥. 鈥淚t’s simply got the means of providing financial support and incentives to employers to get involved,鈥 Cavan said. How will it be funded? The cost of apprentice training is funded through the apprenticeship levy. Every organisation with a pay bill of over 拢3 million pays a 0.5 per cent annual charge. They can then draw down funding to pay for training. Smaller organisations contribute 5 per cent to the cost of training, and the government pays the rest. They can also be gifted levy funding from larger organisations. However, employers 鈥 in this case schools, councils and trusts 鈥 will be responsible for paying apprentices鈥 salaries. Those on the current postgraduate route are paid on the unqualified teachers鈥 pay scale, with some grant funding available in shortage subjects. But the Department for Education has said its approach is under review for the undergraduate route. Carter predicted the new route would be 鈥渉ugely attractive鈥, but he acknowledged that having to pay the salary 鈥 which is not the case on fee-funded routes into teaching 鈥 was 鈥渁 downside鈥. This means thinking 鈥渄ifferently鈥 about trainees. 鈥淭hey aren’t someone who comes in, who sits on the edge and we may or may not use them later. We have to have a really big investment in them at the beginning when we select them and all the way through because it’s costing us their salary.鈥 For trainees, the scheme is a 鈥済lorious鈥 opportunity to get a professional qualification for free, to be paid while learning 鈥渁nd, at the end of it, you’re going to a profession where you’ll be welcomed with open arms鈥, Carter said. Schools should also encourage former pupils to take up the route, he added. 鈥淚f we had two teachers out of every school in England, we would have a surplus. In a time of recruitment difficulties, we can’t see why anybody would not do it.鈥 But will it increase the number of teachers? The postgraduate apprenticeship, a 15-month programme that requires an existing degree, launched in 2018. This year, there were 962 starts on the route, 4 per cent of all postgraduate trainees recruited. Last year, the pass rate was 85 per cent, compared to a national average for level 6 apprenticeships of 65 per cent. Trailblazers have also looked to nursing apprenticeships for inspiration. Last year, 1,690 people completed a nursing degree apprenticeship, representing about 0.5 per cent of the total workforce in England. If similar recruitment was achieved for the teaching apprenticeship, it would equate to 2,341 extra teachers per year (or 7 per cent of the total target for 2024). Recruitment pool widens The trailblazers also believe that the new route could make the profession more diverse. Teach First, one of the trailblazers, is in the process of accrediting to offer the route in 鈥渁 couple of years鈥 time鈥. The charity鈥檚 chief executive Russell Hobby told Schools Week that there were 鈥減lenty of teaching assistants鈥 without degrees, as well as others 鈥渇or whom a university route is not the right decision for them鈥. 鈥淚t’s often a diverse source of talent, it’s often connected to the communities that schools find it hardest to recruit from as well. So, it’s exciting to consider the possibilities there.鈥 Robyn Johnstone, CEO of e-Qualitas, a teacher training provider, said the postgraduate route had 鈥渆nabled us to find a different group of people who possibly might not have gone into teaching before, because they’ve generally been TAs in schools鈥. 鈥淭hey’ve got a degree, but they’ve been working in school for a long time. They don’t want to leave and go into a PGCE 鈥 and have to have to pay for that. They want to work on a salaried route.鈥 What are the potential pitfalls? The National Education Union has warned that the route will put 鈥渟tandards at risk, placing underqualified and inexperienced teachers into classrooms鈥. The NAHT leaders鈥 union has also said that it is 鈥渧ery concerned about any proposals that look to truncate degrees and teacher training, as this scheme does鈥. But Claire Harnden, South Farnham鈥檚 deputy CEO, said the course would be more 鈥渃ondensed鈥 than a traditional programme, while time in the classroom allowed for more 鈥減ractical application鈥 of training. And unqualified teachers would not initially be left unsupervised, Claire Donnachie, deputy director of the trust鈥檚 teaching schools hub, insisted. Claire Harnden As on other routes, apprentices will work 鈥渦nder the supervision of an experienced member of staff at the level that is appropriate to their stage of development鈥. Hobby, himself a former general secretary of the NAHT, said the route must provide 鈥渞igorous subject knowledge鈥 as well as a 鈥渇ull honours degree鈥. 鈥淭here’s no reason it shouldn’t provide that,鈥 he added. 鈥淥bviously, the government needs to do a stronger job of communicating that fact.鈥 Hobby said that ministers must also consider more generally the 鈥渃apacity of primary schools for on-the-job training鈥, which is 鈥渓imited by their budgets and infrastructure鈥. 鈥淲e need to think through how that might work for them, because I’d hate to see them excluded from this.鈥 Joe Guy, chief talent officer at the Academies Enterprise Trust, another of the trailblazers, said brilliant teaching was a 鈥渃raft that is passed down generations鈥. 鈥淭here are challenges 鈥 things like getting the balance right between academic study and on-the-job experience and ensuring there is enough mentoring capacity in the system 鈥 but these are not insurmountable.鈥 鈥楥an鈥檛 be cut-price alternative鈥 With limited information about how apprentices will be paid, even unions supportive of the principle have voiced concerns. Unison head of education Mike Short said the route was an 鈥渙pportunity for teaching assistants without degrees to qualify as teachers while avoiding the full financial headache of being a student鈥. But he flagged 鈥減ractical concerns around supervision, release time, cover and pay when school resources are already stretched to the limit鈥, adding that apprenticeships 鈥渃an鈥檛 be used as a cut-price alternative to current jobs鈥. School leadership union ASCL sits on the trailblazers group. Sara Tanton, its deputy director of policy, said it was 鈥渧ital that the support, training and particularly the subject knowledge provided to apprentices is on a par with other routes into teaching鈥. 鈥淕iven the variety of undergraduate degrees that may have been taken by teachers of a particular subject, this will not be simple to achieve,鈥 she added. She called for 鈥渃larity on the terms and conditions attached to the role. It is our view that these should be incorporated within the school teachers鈥 pay and conditions document.鈥 What happens now? The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education The consultation closes on Monday. The pilot, which will see the DfE fund training for up to 150 maths apprentices, will run from September 2025.
S. Turner 24 March 2024 “A new apprenticeship presents a 鈥済lorious鈥 opportunity for those without a degree to train to teach, will help bring under-represented groups into the profession and give schools a much-needed option to spend levy funding.” This sounds like a quote from a government handout. If so it should be attributed. If not then it shows the bias of the person writing the article. I stopped reading after this as I did not want to waste my time.
16 February 2025 This is an obvious plan to de-professionalise teaching. As an experienced teacher I find it insulting that my peers would be colleagues without a degree or postgraduate training As a parent I worry about the quality of teacher my children might receive. The long term goal here is clearly to reduce the pay and terms for teachers. Woeful.