teacher training | Schools Week

Teaching assistants allowed to gain QTS through assessment-only route

The number of teachers qualifying through a 12-week “assessment-only” route is rising, fuelling fears that providers are letting applicants without proper experience qualify for a price. Two years ago 912 people were awarded QTS through assessment alone, but that figure rose by 13 per cent to 1,034 last year, new data obtained by Schools Week […]

Private teacher training providers escape Ofsted clutches

The bosses of the two biggest teacher-training organisations in the country have warned against using private providers which aren’t subject to the “acid test” of Ofsted inspections. Emma Hollis, the executive director of the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT), said at a conference on Monday there was a “real danger” that companies advertising […]

How Schools Week complained about a job advert and uncovered a strange situation

A misleading job advert targeting prospective teaching assistants has been removed by the company responsible after pressure from Schools Week. The New Skills Academy, a private online training company, was using The Guardian’s popular jobs website to advertise a teaching assistant diploma. The description claimed that to secure a job as a TA, applicants must […]

Teaching apprenticeships will work if used wisely

There’s no reason why teacher apprenticeships can’t train new educators to the highest standards, says David Owen In 1947, my father, aged 17, left the Welsh market town of Carmarthen to start an engineering apprenticeship at Austin Motors in Longbridge, Birmingham. This was the start of a successful career in the car industry; he became […]

Scrapped teacher training caps a blow for rural providers

Rural teacher training providers will “suffer” when caps on teacher training places are lifted next year, experts have warned. The government has removed recruitment controls on school-based and university-based initial teacher training (ITT) providers for 2018-19. Limits on the number of trainees will remain only for secondary school PE and some primary school courses – […]

Government should write off teachers’ student loans

We need bold new ideas to complement pay rises and beat the retention crisis, claims Russell Hobby There is a truth at the heart of education success that is too often lost in the controversies that attract the headlines. We control the factor with the most impact on children’s education: the quality of teaching they […]

Greening: Teaching will cease to be only for university graduates

Teaching will cease to exist as a university graduate-only profession under Conservative plans for a new degree-equivalent apprenticeship route to QTS, Justine Greening has confirmed, in a major shift in ministerial thinking. The education secretary wants higher apprenticeships to be seen as equivalent to university degrees, and envisages them working as a route into teaching, […]

New academy trust pledges not to hire unqualified teachers

A new sixth form-led academy chain has announced it will only hire qualified or trainee teachers in a bid to shake off the negative history of the academies programme. The Challenge Academy Trust, which runs five schools and a sixth-form college in the north-west, has even signed an agreement with teaching unions to guarantee this […]

Learndirect debacle shines light on £2m teacher test contract

The future of online tests for trainee teachers is hanging in the balance, as the only provider which holds a contract to deliver them in England faces turmoil over its adult training. Learndirect, the country’s largest private training company, holds a £2 million contract with the Department for Education to administer the computerised professional skills […]