Pandemic has led to 1.6 million considering teaching

Teach First has reported that the Covid-19 lockdown has led to more than 1.6 million people in the UK to think about becoming a teacher, despite not considering it before lockdown.

The top reasons people give for wanting to become teachers are because they want to work with children and young people (22.8%) and they want to have a social impact (19.1%).

Over 25% of parents said they had become more grateful for the work of teachers since lockdown, while only 3% said they had become less so. About 25% also said that their respect for teachers had risen (compared to just 4.5% who said that respect had fallen).

What's more, 64% of parents say they have enjoyed home-schooling and only 9% reported a negative experience, revealing one of the possible drivers for people to consider teaching.

Now Teach's co-founder, Lucy Kellaway, said: "I co-founded Now Teach four years ago because I hoped there were other professionals out there who, like me, wanted to do something more useful with their lives.

"The pandemic has made this point more powerfully than I ever could. It has shone a light on the emptiness of some jobs and made people want to do something that really matters.”