The government should pilot £7.5 million “teacher in residence” secondments to businesses and a career break scheme to attract more “generation Z” teachers, a report commissioned by Teach First has said.
The suggestions are some of a series put forward by sector organisations as Labour grapples with how to achieve its manifesto pledge to hire 6,500 “new” teachers.
Research by Public First, including a poll of more than 3,000 16 to 24-year-olds, found that although 61 per cent would consider working as a teacher, most crave a good work-life balance (56 per cent) and 80 per cent would prefer some degree of hybrid working.
Non-linear careers
Generation Z – described in the report as those born between 1995 and 2012 – want a “career in which they’re making a difference”, the survey found.
But they also want to be able to afford a house or flat, and do not “expect to have linear career trajectories within any industry”.
Just 13 per cent of poll respondents said they would enjoy teaching for their whole careers, while 47 per cent said they would enjoy it for a few years and not their whole career.
Focus groups run by Public First also found a “strong sense that teaching was a career for later, not now”.
£7.5m secondments pilot proposed
The report called for a “decade-long open door recruitment strategy”.
That included a £7.5 million pilot of “short-term teacher in residence secondments” into businesses, which would help “bring new experiences and insights into the classroom and provide extensive opportunities for professional development”.
They “could be delivered as whole-week blocks, or as short, half day training segments over an extended period of time either within term time, or the school holidays”.
£7.5 million would, Teach First said, cover “expenses, classroom cover and programme delivery for 450 high-quality, carefully selected placements across priority sectors”.
Pilots should initially be prioritised for schools serving disadvantaged communities.
However, some schools would inevitably struggle to find the staff to cover for those on secondment during term time, putting further pressure on teacher numbers.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the ASCL leaders’ union, said “innovative solutions” are required.
But added “organising secondments for teachers to work in other sectors would be exceptionally hard to deliver given the numerous time and funding pressures on schools and it is hard to see how this could be delivered at scale.”
‘Worthwhile but challenging’
Teach First said the proposed pilot was “based on consultation with partner schools and MATs”, some of whome already have such schemes.
“Some of which involved back-filling, but others used their existing staff to timetable slightly differently for the time of the secondment,” the report stated.
Macclesfield Academy recently supported a physics teacher to participate in a residency at The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland.
Its principal Mat Galvin said secondments are “incredibly worthwhile for teachers and their pupils” and “could transform recruitment and retention”.
But they can also be “challenging for some schools, especially those with tight budgets and serving communities experiencing deprivation, as we do”.
Paul Whiteman, of the NAHT leaders’ union, warned there are “no simple solutions or quick fixes” and policymakers must be “realistic about what is manageable for schools”.
Career-break scheme also put forward
A career break scheme would also put forward by Teach First, to “facilitate a teacher’s personal and professional development for experienced teachers”.
This would be a period of unpaid special leave, and could be extended on an annual basis as long as the total period is no longer than five years.
Participants would be guaranteed their role at the end of the scheme, with “coaching support to re-enter the classroom and implement their learning”.
But Jack Worth, school workforce lead at the National Foundation for Educational Research, said it “would need careful thought and piloting”.
“Schools may find it challenging to back-fill their staffing when supply is already so tight. Also, the benefit in terms of retention would need to be clear to make it worthwhile.”
Working conditions must improve too
The report said reframing the narrative around teaching was “important”, but would require changes to “material conditions to meaningfully boost recruitment”.
Talking about teaching as “poorly paid martyrdom” will “actively dissuade this generation from teaching”.
Respondents viewed teaching as “rewarding” (48 per cent), and 73 per cent said teaching was a job with “purpose” – roughly the same as nurses and doctors.
But they also described the job as “stressful” (55 per cent) and “difficult” (45 per cent). Forty-four per cent said they had heard and believed teaching was “more difficult now than it used to be”.
The report is the latest in a series of papers from sector bodies aimed at influencing education secretary Bridget Phillipson’s approach to teacher recruitment and retention.
Schools Week revealed this month that Labour’s manifesto promise to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers may not be delivered for years, and officials are also considering whether to loosen the pledge to include retention too.
Sector bodies push solutions as Labour plans next moves
A report from the National Institute of Teaching this week called for exploration of a range of initiatives, including nine-day fortnights and priority school places for teachers’ children.
There are also “potential conversion routes”, such as university lecturers moving into schools and primary teachers retrained as pupil numbers in that phase fall.
And unsuccessful teacher training applicants should be redirected to other jobs like teaching assistants.
The NIOT paper called for a “system that embraces ‘squiggly’ career paths and values experience outside the classroom, and welcomes back those who have dipped out to try something else”.
Meanwhile, research by the NFER, also released this week, found reimbursing student loan repayments for all teachers in their first 10 years would lead to an increase of around 2,100 teachers in the first year of the programme.
But examining different approaches to incentives, they found the cost per additional teacher year gained was lower for bursaries (around £9,000), compared to around £12,500 for student loan reimbursement.
“This suggests that a policy approach of first raising bursaries where they are low is likely to be most cost effective.”
And research by UCL’s Professor John Jerrim found that young people who live at home while studying for a degree are “more likely to become a teacher than those who move out of the family home”.
Reform incentives and boost teacher pay
Teach First’s report also made further recommendations.
These included bursaries reform and widening of the £150 million “levelling-up premium” – retention payments for teachers in certain subjects and areas of England – to include languages, geography and more STEM subjects and to all trainees regardless of ITT route.
Pay for trainees on employment-based training routes should be reinstated to 2010 levels in real-terms, requiring a 9 per cent rise, at a cost of £40 million.
Government should also establish a “route to increase teacher salaries to be in the top third of the graduate salary market by 2030 to better compete in the graduate recruitment market”.
Should the government continue to accept 5.5 per cent pay rises each year this would bring starting salaries to £40,000 by 2030.
Government should also set out a “flexibility entitlement for every teacher”.
The exact way in which this flexibility is offered would be decided “ultimately by schools”, but could include compressed hours – where a normal working week is condensed into fewer, longer days and remote INSET days.
‘Holding back education’
James Zuccolo, director of school workforce at the Education Policy Institute, said by “facilitating easier transitions in and out of teaching, the profession can attract the necessary new entrants and benefit from a wider range of skills and perspectives”.
But the report “also emphasizes the need for the DfE to enhance compensation”.
Teach First CEO Russell Hobby said conditions in teaching had “failed to keep pace with what the next generation of workers crave in a career – and what they can find in other sectors”.
“This means that, despite having huge respect for teachers, Gen Z are simply not signing up in sufficient numbers. This is holding back the education of our young people, especially from poorer backgrounds.”
