- Recruitment
- Teacher Supply
Written by Fiona Rogers, Deputy CEO and Director of Professional Development and Research, COBIS
Earlier this month, on the day of the UK general election, NASBTT (The National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers) published a manifesto: The Future of Initial Teacher Training: How can we attract more people to the teaching profession and support school-based ITT providers to deliver high-quality training? This manifesto starts from the premise that ‘teacher supply is in crisis’, and highlights some of the latest sobering statistics about missed targets for recruitment to initial teacher training, record low numbers of newly qualified teachers entering the profession, and high numbers of teachers leaving. NASBTT make a series of recommendations, around making teacher training affordable, tackling public perceptions about teaching, incentivising schools to engage with Initial Teacher Training, building mentoring capacity with a funded Teacher Professional Development Lead for all schools, and finding ways to implement flexible working.
The recommendation about tackling public perceptions about teaching calls for a longer-term, strategic vision for education, looking at things like pay and financial incentives for teachers, but also advocates for research to explore why young people are not considering teaching as a profession, and taking steps to address public perceptions of the profession. On this point, COBIS has long been advocating that the opportunities of working in the international school sector can have a positive impact on perceptions of the attractiveness of teaching as a profession. In the reports from the COBIS research project on Teacher Supply in British International Schools (2018, 2020, 2022), we have called for teaching to be positioned as a global profession. The opportunity to work both at home and abroad makes teaching a highly attractive career, and rather than looking at the international school sector as a threat, this should be leveraged to increase the attractiveness of teaching as a profession and enhance recruitment to Initial Teacher Training. We know that teachers move in both directions between the domestic and international sectors, and in the 2022 Teacher Supply study, nearly a quarter of international school leaders reported an increase in the number of teachers moving or returning to the UK to teach. Those teachers who do move or return to teaching in the UK bring with them a wealth of transferrable skills and valuable experience from their international roles – cultural awareness, global outlook/international mindedness, EAL experience, adaptability, resilience. International experience also supports retention – 43% of incoming teachers were thinking about leaving the teaching profession before taking up an international school job (Teacher Supply in British International Schools, 2022). The main reasons that teachers cite for choosing to work aboard are travel and cultural exploration and enjoyment and challenge. International experience gives teachers an opportunity to develop themselves both personally and professionally, and those that return to teaching in the UK (and they do return – with the main reasons cited as a desire to return home, concerns about being separated from family and friends, and family commitments) bring with them valuable skills, experience and perspectives which can have a positive impact on classes and students in the UK.
It is true that many international roles will be in well-resourced, fee-paying schools, often with smaller class sizes, excellent professional development opportunities, fewer behavioural challenges, and where teachers generally report better work-life balance, and feeling valued and respected in their profession. Many of these international schools (including COBIS Training Schools) are also training additional teachers for the global teacher workforce, through engagement with programmes like iQTS, iPGCE, and other international teacher training routes. Why shouldn’t a teacher, who has been working in the UK, take a few years to broaden their horizons and further develop their skills in an international context – particularly if it means retaining them within the profession. If we are talking about tackling public perceptions, then rather than divisive media headlines like ‘The great classroom brain drain: Poorly-paid British teachers…quitting their jobs in their droves to… live the high life abroad’ (Daily Mail, 15 June 2024), might we instead capitalise on the international opportunities of a teaching career to attract more young people into this truly global profession?
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