How can we keep trainees in the school system?

Emma Hollis from the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers takes on the teacher recruitment and retention debate

Teacher recruitment is at its lowest ebb – and it pains me to say that. As I write this article, the Commons Education Select Committee has just published contributions to its Teacher Recruitment, Training and Retention inquiry, and is hearing evidence from a panel of witnesses from school staff unions and other organisations.

It is a timely inquiry indeed. The NFER’s Teacher Labour Market in England Annual Report 2023 highlighted that the number of teacher vacancies posted by schools was 93 per cent higher in the academic year up to February this year (and almost twice pre-Covid level). And the number of new entrants to Initial Teacher Training (ITT) has fallen from 40,377 in 2020-21 to 28,991 last year, which is just 71 per cent of the government’s target.

Subsequent discussion on why this is happening has ranged from teacher pay, with private sector wages outstripping public sector wages, to the lack of flexibility compared to other graduate jobs, with solutions posed including offering a salary to all trainees and bursaries for all subjects not reaching their recruitment targets. Attempts to reduce workload and mental health support have also been brought to the table.

Teacher recruitment and retention is a complex piece, of course, but in terms of NASBTT’s unique perspective and expertise specifically on teacher training, we advocate the need to also understand trainees’ perspectives on issues that are causing them not to apply or withdraw which is only exacerbating the problem. E

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