Increasing numbers of university students are taking up school internships to get a taste for teaching, new figures show.
But are any of them going on to teacher training, and how much does it all cost? Schools Week investigates …
Rise of the teaching intern
Established in 2016, the Department for Education-run Teaching Internships Programme gives university students studying degrees in “relevant priority subjects” experience of teaching before potentially committing to it as a career.
Three-week internships take place in June or July, and interns are paid £455 a week. Schools receive £700 per intern to cover “coordination and delivery costs”.
The Get Into Teaching website states interns get “a feel for what life as a teacher is like” through shadowing, joint lesson planning and teaching, and one-to-one mentoring.
The government said the scheme “supports a pipeline of future teachers”.
Figures obtained by Schools Week through a freedom of information (FOI) request show the scheme’s popularity has grown. In 2021, just 450 students took part. But in both 2023 and 2024, nearly 1,000 pupils interned in classrooms.
The rise comes amid a wider slump in graduate opportunities.
Internships were offered in just maths and physics until 2022, but have since been expanded to include computing, languages and chemistry.
How many go on to teach?
The department does not hold data on how many interns become trainees, but does track those who apply to initial teacher training (ITT).
Of the 2,147 interns who did the scheme between 2020 and 2023, about 26 per cent (556) had applied to ITT by the end of September 2024.
Students can do internships from their second year of university but can only apply to teacher training from their final year.
Looking at the interns in 2020 and 2021, about 35 per cent in both years have since applied to teach – which may be a more accurate figure.
“We want to encourage and engage with uni students and hopefully inspire them to consider teaching as a career”
The DfE said some interns may have changed their email address or name before applying to teacher – so they could be missing from the data.
A department spokesperson said interns “have become increasingly important as part of entry to the graduate labour market and professional training”, across the entire student population.
Emma Hollis, chief executive of the National Association of School-based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT), said the “positive” scheme can be a “valuable way to build relationships with future applicants”. She added it “may not always have an immediate return, but may build longer-term pipelines”.
Does it work for schools?
The number of “lead schools” taking part has fallen.
As of 2024, 63 lead schools helped run the scheme, down slightly from 68 the year before and 66 in 2022. Leads typically partner with local schools or their trust to deliver the programme and host interns.
Hollis said: “Hosting interns can be resource-intensive for schools and providers – requiring significant time for coordination and placement management when capacity is already stretched in both schools and providers.”
Schools have continued to receive £700 per intern – despite sky-high inflation pushing up costs. However, the rate paid to interns by government has increased significantly as the national minimum wage has risen. In 2022, interns were paid £900 for the three-week scheme. For 2026, they will now get £1,365.
Liz Wylie, director at i2i Teaching Partnership SCITT, said she feels the current funding “is proportional to what we need to do”.
“We want to encourage and engage with uni students and hopefully inspire them to consider teaching as a career. We manage our costs carefully and spread the work through our team.”
However, Hollis added: “To continue to add real value, internships must be adequately funded … clearly structured and linked to wider recruitment pipelines.”
The classroom barriers
Claire Amed, learning and development manager at Creative Education Trust (CET), said the programme needs “considerable internal administrative capacity”. She suggested the “potentially lucrative talent stream” could be “more efficiently managed via a central agency”.
Wylie added putting interns in classrooms with teachers already juggling high workloads remains her “biggest challenge”.
Wylie said the SCITT tries to “show teachers that this is another pair of hands in your classroom … [and] kind of look at the positive”.
Interns at i2i are given online training in pedagogy by the SCITT’s central team. Then when in the school, they shadow form tutors, plan and deliver part of a lesson, and have access to a mentor.
“They’re really … at the chalk face,” added Wylie. “They get that real experience.”
Dr Chris Tomlinson, CEO of Co-op Academies, said the scheme is “making a real impact” at his trust. It allows students to “experience school life first-hand and discover whether teaching feels like the right path”.
More than a fifth of interns have since started teacher training, with the rate improving each year, he added.
Value for money?
So is the scheme value for money?
Between 2020 and 2024, a total of 3,104 interns completed the scheme (although just 80 took part in 2020 because of Covid).
Government spent £5 million on the scheme across those years – about £1,600 per intern. However, if we assume the rate of interns who go on to teacher training is about 35 per cent, this average cost is closer to £5,000.
But Amed said as well as providing a “a valuable opportunity” into school life for undergraduates, the scheme can have a wider positive impact on schools. Interns “bring with them energy, innovation and capacity at a much-needed point in the school year”. They also give inexperienced ITT mentors the chance to “hone their skills” before guiding teacher trainees, she added.
Internship expansion calls
The DfE recently invited schools to bid for a three-year grant to deliver internships in from 2026.
Only schools able to host at least five interns eligible. They must also offer internships in maths and physics as a minimum.
FOI data shows maths had the most interns in 2024 (37 per cent), followed by languages (20 per cent) and chemistry (19 per cent).
From 2026, the scheme will include a design and technology (DT) internship.
DT hit just 39 per cent of its ITT recruitment target in 2024-25 – among the lowest of all subjects.
The DfE said the number and location of DT teaching internships will depend on the outcome of the procurement process.
Some schools are now calling for a wider expansion to meet growing demand.
i2i had around 39 applicants for just 12 places last year. Wylie welcomed the DT expansion, and called for more shortage subjects to be included in the scheme, such as business studies.
This could also help schools benefit from a worsening labour market, amid AI-fuelled job cuts and a stagnant economy.
UK graduates face the toughest job market since 2018, analysis by jobs website Indeed in June found.
Wylie said: “It would be really great to touch with more undergrads…to really show them how enjoyable it is to be a teacher.”
Meanwhile Co-op Academies Trust is now offering its own unpaid internships in English, history, geography, RE, music and art.
“This growth reflects how rewarding the experience has been for everyone involved and our continued commitment to finding, developing and supporting great teachers,” Tomlinson added.
Your thoughts