Sector leaders say the Government must reinstate funding for career switch scheme Now Teach
Hundreds of teachers have joined union leaders and charity bosses to warn the Education Secretary she risks breaking her manifesto pledge to boost classroom recruitment unless she reinstates funding for a career switching scheme.
Bridget Phillipson has committed to hiring 6,500 new teachers to the profession as part of the Government’s efforts to tackle the recruitment crisis.
But more than 300 current teachers and leaders in the sector have warned the target is a risk of being missed unless the Government finds the money to bring back Now Teach, the recruitment scheme that places career switchers into the classroom.
The programme was scrapped by the previous Conservative government but supporters of the scheme said it had recruited over 1,100 career-change teachers, with 95 per cent placed in shortage subjects and delivered 107 per cent of its Department for Education contracts.
The decision to abolish the programme last April sparked an outcry, with former education secretary Lord Blunkett stating at the time that it should be saved. The scheme is due be completely wound down in 2026.
In an open letter, the signatories point out that “while national recruitment targets have consistently been missed”, over-40s are the only recruitment cohort that has seen growth in recent years.
They urge Phillipson to reinstate funding for the programme as part of the Government’s forthcoming spending review, which will be published in June.
Among those signing the letter is Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, Russell Hobby, chief executive of Teach First and Dame Alison Peacock, chief executive of the Chartered College of Teaching.
Peacock said: “I want to see more people changing their career to teaching, bringing valuable experience into the profession. Now Teach attracts and helps retain career changers into teaching; these colleagues make a real difference to pupils.
“ Government funding for this programme should be reinstated in support of our overall ambition of growing and developing our teaching workforce.”
Lucy Kellaway, co-founder of Now Teach and a former Financial Times journalist turned economics teacher said the spending review was an opportunity for the Labour Government to “correct the errors of the Tories” by restoring funding for the scheme.
“This isn’t just about bums on seats, career changers concentrate in shortage subjects and the quality and durability of these educators is well proven.
“With nearly a decade of experience and partnerships with hundreds of schools and training providers, to junk a target-busting scheme for a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach that has missed 11 out 12 annual targets is beyond short-sighted”.
Glyn Potts, headteacher at Newman Roman Catholic College in Oldham said that career switchers that join the profession “with broader employment experience… act as the bridge between student ambition and classroom learning”.
The Department for Education has been contacted for comment.