Schools will be offered grants to recruit undergraduates as paid interns in the hope of persuading more young people to become maths and physics teachers, the government has announced.
Under plans revealed today, schools can apply for funding to offer a minimum of 10 STEM undergraduate students “the chance to gain a deep experience of teaching” in a school, including running projects, supporting pupils, shadowing, delivering lessons and one-to-one mentorship.
The Department for Education said the programme should include “measures to support and encourage interns to apply for teacher training”, such as continued contact with a mentor, supporting them to make applications and a guarantee of an interview for any ITT places they apply for at the partnership.
For the minimum number of 10 interns the grant funding equates to £20,000, or £500 per student per week. Of this, £300 should be used for the intern’s expenses and £200 for school costs.
The new programme follows a pledge in the 2015 Conservative manifesto to train an extra 17,500 maths and physics teachers over the course of the parliament.
The government also recently launched the ‘Future Teaching Scholars’ programme. It offers 18-year-olds a grant of £15,000 for studying a maths or physics-related degree at university, as well as a place on a salaried teacher training course and six years of “extensive personal and professional development support” to get into the profession.
The paid internship scheme grant is only for one year, and only for maths and physics. Future funding is dependent on the scheme’s success.
Students should be in their penultimate year at university, with the training lasting four weeks. Successful applicants will begin on the scheme in February 2018, with funding available until August 31 2018.
The government is inviting school-led partnerships to apply, including School Direct partnerships or partnerships with an accredited school-centred initial teacher training provider or higher education institution.
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