Schools are offering part-time courses, approaching former soldiers and sponsoring sports teams to promote the profession, as more than three-quarters say trainee teacher applications are down on last year.
More than two fifths (43 per cent) of members who took part in a National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers’ (NASBTT) survey also reported more difficulty in placing recruits, the result of schools struggling to mentor teachers as staff shortages worsen and workloads increase.
Survey respondents said the most common reasons for the fall were the cost-of-living crisis (22 per cent) and perceptions of the profession (15 per cent).
The crisis is set to deepen this year with the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) predicting the government will recruit fewer than half of the secondary trainees required for 2023-24.
