School-based teacher training routes are getting teachers into classrooms at higher rates than university providers, a new analysis has found.
The Good Teacher Training Guide 2017, published today, has revealed the top ten providers based on the entry qualifications of trainees, the course quality (its Ofsted grade), and how many trainees achieved qualified teacher status after completing courses in 2014-15.
Eight of the ten are school-centred providers, with the King Edward’s Consortium – which provides training in a range of Birmingham schools – coming highest among them.
University of Cambridge tops the chart overall, but is joined by only one other university provider, Loughborough University, in the top ten.
While trainee numbers are falling, the report found “reasons for optimism” that nine in ten trainees on school-based programmes took up teaching posts in the following year, compared to eight in ten (79 per cent) who trained via university-led courses.
Professor Alan Smithers (pictured right), one of the report’s authors, said the difference could be explained by trainees in schools being more committed to teaching, and schools selecting trainees “more carefully” than universities given trainees are future colleagues.
“This is good news for the government, when we are hearing every day about concern with teacher supply.”
But James Noble-Rogers, executive director of the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers, claimed the employment figures even out when looked at a few years after qualification.
He said: “The (university-led) routes are actually equally effective in meeting the long-term teacher supply needs.”
The study found teacher training places on university courses had fallen by a third since 2009 (from 30,246, to 20,195), in line with the government’s drive towards an “increasingly school-led initial teacher training system”.
However, the number of trainee teachers on across all routes has dropped by 6,000 which has “led to fears that government policy is exacerbating the shortage of teachers”.
While the University of Cambridge was crowned the best teacher training provider, the only other university in the top ten was Loughborough.
The other eight were school-based programmes, with the King Edward’s Consortium second, and the Pimlico-London SCITT, third.
Although the latter, run by academies minister Lord Nash’s Future Academies trust, only had nine trainees.
But Noble-Rogers said the dominance of school-led providres was to expected, as there are far more of them compared to university-led providers. Figures for how many providers per type were not included in the analysis.
The report also found 17 providers with 100 per cent employment rates – all of which were school-based.
A total of 40 per cent of SCITTs are rated “outstanding”, compared to 30 per cent of university providers, the study found. Although the latter attract trainees with better degrees.
But Noble-Rogers said distinguishing between routes is becoming “incredibly artificial” as higher education institutions are involved through partnerships in many school-led programmes.
“We’re moving into a new era of stronger partnerships,” he added.
The Good Teacher Training Guide 2017 Top Ten:
- University of Cambridge
- The King Edward’s Consortium, Birmingham
- The Pimlico-London SCITT
- Cramlington Teaching School Alliance SCITT
- Devon Primary SCITT
- Loughborough University
- Leicester and Leicestershire SCITT
- North East Partnership SCITT
- Billericay Educational Consortium SCITT
- Alban Federation
Working for a successful academy chain in West Yorkshire that has a school based training scheme, I must say that our chain struggles with recruitment of new trainees and therefore to make numbers almost anyone is accepted. The quality of trainees has been poor compared to PGCE students from universities.