Over the past year, the Department for Education (DfE) has been developing proposals for a new non-graduate route into teaching, labelled the Teacher Degree Apprenticeship (TDA), being designed by a ‘trailblazer’ group and overseen by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE). The secretary of state for education, Gillian Keegan, sees this as a priority development.
All QTS routes (with the exception of the BEd undergraduate initial teacher training) currently require a degree, making teaching a graduate entry profession. The TDA will offer an employed route for non-graduates to enter teaching. These apprentices will study for a degree and QTS while working in a school over a period of about four years, with about 40% of their time spent on academic study each year. The DfE described this as an ‘earn and learn’ approach, attractive to teaching assistants and other career changers, as well as school leavers who do not wish to accrue student debt.
In line with our longstanding policy position, ‘NAHT opposes any non-graduate route into the teaching profession, such as teaching apprenticeships, that undermine the value of the profession’; the national executive adopted the position that it opposes these proposals. As the DfE did not enter into full and meaningful engagement, consultation or collaboration with the profession’s representative bodies from the beginning of developing this policy, NAHT, along with other major education unions, declined the invitation to join their ‘trailblazer’ group.
Instead, we have regularly raised our concerns through other forums, offering suggestions for how the proposals may be improved upon and alternative approaches to address the ongoing recruitment and retention crisis. In 2023, NAHT led joint union work with NEU, writing to offer to meet (then) minister of state Nick Gibb and pressing him to: ‘… take steps to allow time for full consultation and discussion to take place [and suggesting that] … officials convene a series of meetings, beginning in the new academic year for detailed engagement, in order that we can engage our members.’
