£196 million funding to support new trainee teachers

The Department for Education (DfE) has announced that £196 million will fund scholarships, bursaries and salary grants to help thousands of candidates through their Initial Teacher Training (ITT).   

Scholarships for those training to teach mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing will now be brought up to £30,000 tax-free, in order to attract more talented teachers in these key subjects to support the delivery of the Advanced British Standard (ABS), announced by the Prime Minister last week. 

The ABS is a new single qualification for 16- to 19-year-olds that the government propose will bring together the best of A-levels and T-levels, giving students the freedom to take a mix of technical and academic subjects, boosting their skillset and giving students more flexibility over their future career options.  

The DfE said students will also spend more time in the classroom, increasing taught hours to a minimum of 1,475 hours over two years. 

In his speech, the Prime Minister said he was committing an initial investment of £600 million over two years to lay the groundwork for delivering the Advanced British Standard, which would double the Levelling Up Premium, helping retain talented teachers in priority subjects, according to the Department for Education. 

This would mean that, existing teachers, who are in the first five years of their careers teaching priority subjects in disadvantaged schools will receive £6,000 tax-free per year. The department said this will include, for the first-time, further education colleges and will recognise and reward the valuable jobs that teachers play in our society. 

Overall, the next recruitment cycle will see a £15 million increase on the financial support available to trainee teachers compared to the last cycle. 

As part of the increase, the department said that existing bursaries for biology and design & technology will also be brought up to £25,000 and additional bursaries for subjects that are compulsory to the curriculum have been introduced, including one in music. This means those applying to train to teach music will receive a £10,000 bursary. This brings the total number of eligible subjects available for financial support to 12. 

Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan said: “Last week the Prime Minister set out a new vision for our education system. The new Advanced British Standard will expand the range of what our 16- to 19-year-olds learn and finally end the artificial divide between academic and technical education. 

“We know teachers will be key to its success – just as they have been to raising standards since 2010. That’s why we need the best and the brightest teaching throughout our schools. These bursaries give trainee teachers even more choice and support to help them start their journey into the classroom.”