Free government teacher training programmes extended for two years

Government-accredited training programmes - National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) - will continue to be free for teachers to take for the next two academic years (22/23 and 23/24), the government has announced.

The announcement form part of the government’s commitment to provide 500,000 teacher training opportunities during this Parliament.

To enable teachers and leaders all over England to take up the free training offer, additional payments to small schools are being introduced, helping ensure that where a child lives has no bearing on the quality of teaching they receive. The Targeted Support Fund will give a grant payment of £200 per participant to schools with 1-600 pupils, for every teacher or leader they employ who participates in an NPQ.

This comes as the government has announced the School Led Development Trust (SLDT), a consortium of four leading multi academy trusts, will establish and run the new flagship National Institute of Teaching.

The National Institute of Teaching will deliver high-quality Initial Teacher Training, Early Career Framework, National Professional Qualifications and National Leaders of Education development programmes and will generate and share cutting-edge research and insights into best practice, to improve the quality of teacher training nationwide.

This new package of support for teachers’ continuous professional development comes as schools across the country celebrate Thank a Teacher Day, which recognises the hard work and passion of everyone working in education.

The availability of NPQs is also being extended, with two new NPQs set to be introduced in Early Years Leadership - to support school leaders in their work to ensure every child gets the best start in life – and Leading Literacy, to develop school leaders’ expertise in the teaching of reading and writing. This is a step towards delivering the Government’s commitment, as set out in the Schools White Paper, to improving literacy standards across the country.

The scope of education settings eligible to support the NPQ scholarships is also being broadened to include independent special schools, hospital schools and young offender institutions, among others.

The Harris Federation, Oasis Community Learning, Outwood Grange Academies Trust and Star Academies make up the four trusts to have formed SLDT to run the National Institute of Teaching. Further partnerships with a number of well-reputed school trusts will ensure that the National Institute of Teaching has the scale to reach teachers and leaders up and down the country.

The Institute will be led by a faculty of expert teacher educators, working from its headquarters in Blackburn, Lancashire, and its regional campuses across England. It will recruit and train teachers in the most disadvantaged areas and support levelling up by creating more than half of its new jobs in the North West and North East, and recruiting 20% of staff from the least socially mobile areas in the country. It aims to positively impact every teacher in England by 2028, either directly via its training courses or through the best practice guidance that it will distribute.