Teacher recruitment drive heads to region as fears rise on staffing
A NATIONAL recruitment drive to tackle a critical shortage in the number of teachers is being brought to Yorkshire amid growing concerns that the nation’s education is being gravely undermined due to a lack of staff.
Prospective teachers are being enticed to sign up to the profession with the promise of a taxfree bursary of up to £26,000 as the Government has set out to address the lack of new recruits.
The latest event in the national campaign will be staged in York next month to give people who are considering becoming a teacher the chance to meet training advisors, who will give advice on the financial support available as well as career progression.
Almost 9,000 people attended last year’s events, which were organised in towns and cities across the nation by the Get Into Teaching campaign, which is overseen by the Department for Education.
The latest recruitment drive is being supported by teachers who will be on hand to share their experiences of the profession.
Among them is Jack Martin, a geography teacher at the Vale of York Academy. He said: “One of the best parts of teaching for me is getting to the see the students flourish not only academically, but also personally.
“Students are the most genuine and funny individuals to work with and it is such a privilege to do so.”
However, The Yorkshire Post reported last month that the Government had failed to recruit enough teachers in England for the seventh year running, with dire shortages in essential subjects like maths and science.
It missed its own target, recruiting as few as half the number of teachers needed in key subjects, which school leaders said was “alarming”.
Yorkshire had the highest trainee teacher drop-out rate in the country, tied with the SouthWest, as 10 per cent of trainees did not get qualified teacher status. There were 3,050 trainee teachers in Yorkshire in the 2017/18 academic year.
The recruitment event in York will be staged at the Park Inn by Radisson on North Street on Thursday, January 16, from 4.30pm to 8pm.