£5 million to attract industry professionals into teaching

A £5million scheme has been launched to attract experienced industry professionals to teach in further education.

The Taking Teaching Further programme will pay for up to 150 professionals from sectors such as engineering and computing to retrain as further education teachers.
This will be an important part of the roll out of the first gold standard T Level qualifications – technical courses equivalent to A levels - from September 2020.

The first three T Levels will be taught in more than 50 colleges from 2020, with the remaining 22 phased in after that. This landmark reform will provide young people with a choice between technical and academic education post-16.

Apprenticeships and Skills Minister Anne Milton said: "Teaching in further education is an incredibly rewarding career. It is an opportunity to pass on your knowledge and skills and give someone the chance of a rewarding career.

"I am thrilled to announce this excellent new programme. Attracting the best of industry into the further education sector will help students gain the knowledge and skills that industry really needs."

Taking Teaching Further fulfils a manifesto commitment to bring industry expertise and practical experience into England’s further education sector, so students are gaining the skills and knowledge that will help them secure good jobs, while also providing businesses with the skilled workforce they need.

The programme has been designed with the Association of Colleges and the Education and Training Foundation, to create further links between the education sector and industry.