Nine out of ten newly qualified teachers in job within six months

According to the statistical data, only 11 per cent of teachers who gained a qualified status (QTS) in the 2013-14 academic year were not in a teaching job 6 months later.

Of those not teaching within six months, 865 were still searching for a classroom position, while 913 had decided they did not want to work in a teaching position and 1,727 were ‘unknown’.

Commenting on the prospects of newly qualified teachers, TeachFirst director Sam Freedman said: “Those who start teaching do stay and succeed”.

Despite these seemingly positive statistics, England is still facing a shortage of teachers. One possibly problematic statistics  the number studying for QTS, which has fallen year-by-year. However, due to a higher pass rate in the 2013-2014 academic year, there were only 348 fewer teachers qualifying than in the previous year. Additionally, in 2013-2014, despite having fewer teachers training, more teachers qualified and gained a job within six months.

Another potential difficulty is the difference in drop-out rates between higher education institutions and school-led training providers. It has come to light that 13 per cent of postgraduates trained in the traditional PGCE route were not in teaching six months after qualifying. This is fairly higher than the 8 per cent of school-led trainees who also did not fulfil teaching positions six months after.

Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre of Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham, said: “In-school training may be more efficient. Universities are paid for filling up their places – they don’t have to live with the trainees afterwards.”

This could mean that as school based training programmes increase, the number dropping out could reduce.

The Department for Education (DfE) says teacher recruitment is improving and that there are currently more teachers in the classroom than ever before.

On the other hand, a spokesperson for the department acknowledges: “We recognise recruitment is a challenge as the economy improves and competition for candidates intensifies, which is why we have introduced a range of measures to attract the best people to the profession.”

Among these measures is the recruitment campaign “Your Future is Their Future”. The recruitment initiative includes bursaries worth up to £25,000 and scholarships to encourage people to consider a teaching profession. The DfE says the recruitment campaign is playing a “key role” in resolving the shortage.

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