Helen Jones – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2015-11-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to encourage more teachers with qualifications in English and mathematics to take up posts in further education colleges.

Nick Boles

Our Further Education Workforce Strategy[1] published in 2014 sets out the steps government has already taken to encourage more teachers with qualifications in English and Mathematics to take up posts in further education colleges.

Since 2013, bursaries of up to £25,000 have been available to attract new graduates with relevant degrees to teach English and Mathematics, and to specialise in teaching students with SEN within the FE sector. To date, over 950 bursaries have been provided to graduates. The government is committed to supporting the development of the teaching workforce in FE and has invested over £30m since 2013 to fund a range of programmes and incentives to improve the quality of leadership, teaching and support staff in the sector – with a priority on English and Maths.

Furthermore, 3,800 existing FE teachers have benefited from enhancement programmes designed to improve teacher confidence and knowledge of new GCSE English and Maths qualifications.

Further information on Further Education teacher training can be found in the ‘Get into Teaching’ website[2] and FE advice websites[3].

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/further-education-workforce-strategy

[2]https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/

[3] https://www.feadvice.org.uk/

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