Trainees on Postgraduate Teaching Apprenticeship courses will still get the same quality of training and will receive a Qualified Teacher Status after they have completed it
Teacher apprenticeships will be slashed by three months to get staff into classrooms quicker.
The Government has announced apprentices will now train for nine months over one academic year, instead of over a 12-month period which spans two academic years. Trainees will still get the same quality of training and will receive a Qualified Teacher Status after they have completed the programme.
The announcement applies to Postgraduate Teaching Apprenticeship (PGTA) courses, which have seen a 58% increase in intake in the last few years. They will be shortened from August.
More than 1,400 people trained to teach via this route this year, but demand for places currently far outstrips supply, with around 2,800 eligible applicants last year unable to secure a place on a course.
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There are a range of apprenticeships available to people considering entering the teaching profession including a new degree level teacher apprenticeship as well as teaching assistant apprenticeships.
The government is offering schools up to £28,000 to cover the cost of training apprentices in mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, computing, and modern foreign languages – the subjects which have the highest teacher shortages.
Labour has promised to recruit an additional 6,500 teachers by the end of this Parliament.
Schools Minister Catherine McKinnell said: “Our schools are crying out for more expert teachers, and this government will continue to pull every lever it can to plug the gaps and build on the green shoots we are already seeing. Bringing teaching apprenticeships in line with the school year is not only logical, it will open the doors for more and more people to become brilliant teachers, shaping the lives of the next generation.”
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “Bringing the post-graduate teaching apprenticeship calendar in line with all other teacher training programmes is a welcome move and an act of common sense. It is extremely challenging for schools to support trainees properly in the current funding environment.
“Clearly, if the deep problems in teacher retention are not solved then there will be fewer experienced teachers to support the new entrants. The government needs a plan not just for recruitment but retention also, and one that properly addresses the real-terms funding shortfall that schools have endured for far too long.”
He added: “There are fundamental issues affecting the sector as a whole: pay that is too low, workload that is too high, and inadequate funding. Rachel Reeves is forcing 76 per cent of primary schools and 94 per cent of secondary schools to make cuts this year. Refusing to fund any pay award for 2025/26 simply won’t wash. It will only make matters worse.
“The NEU is clear that no effective solution to the teacher recruitment and retention crisis is possible without a fully funded pay correction to reverse the huge pay cuts against inflation suffered by teachers since 2010.”
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