Autumn Institute: what is it and how will it help?

Our country needs more teachers. Not in five years. Not next year. Now.

Right now, there’s a critical shortage of teachers in the UK, especially in disadvantaged communities. We want to play our part in supporting schools in these areas. This year we’ve had 3,500 requests from schools wanting to hire a Teach First trainee. This is more than ever before and 25% higher than our previous highest number of requests.

This picture is true in schools across the country, so many of which won’t have enough teachers this September, particularly in priority subjects such as science, maths and computing. Recently, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) highlighted the challenge with recruitment of new teachers for the 2021/22 academic year. The number of trainee teachers employed by schools is currently around 14% lower than 2019 (the last pre-COVID recruitment year to follow a “normal” recruitment pattern).

We want to do more to support schools to recruit teachers with great potential. So we’ve taken the exciting step of launching a new Autumn Institute start date for our 2022 Training Programme. This is a new approach for us and we’re delighted to support even more brilliant new teachers into the classroom. And to make sure all schools and pupils have access to the fantastic teaching staff they deserve.

I am thrilled by this innovation and excited to meet the pioneers who will be working with us to transform our approach to training graduates and career changers to become teachers and leaders. It’s an exciting opportunity to further expand the options we can offer for our new trainees. It also builds on our commitment to providing this flexibility – this summer also saw the introduction of our first ever part-time Summer Institute to support more people into the classroom who would benefit from a more flexible route.

Those who are successful in applying for our Training Programme during this window will attend our brand new Autumn Institute – a five week training course – before starting in the classroom. For those who, for whatever reason, didn’t have the chance to apply when we were accepting applications for a summer start, now is your time.

You’ll start your five weeks of initial training on Monday 12 September and be in the classroom by the end of October. That’s just four months away. By then you’ll already be making a real difference in the lives of so many pupils and will be joining a community of thousands, committed to making a difference to education across the country.

After joining our Training Programme, you’ll be a fully-fledged member of our 2022 cohort, joining your peers who completed Summer Institute. With the exception of Autumn Institute, all elements of the programme, including your fully-funded Postgraduate Diploma in Education and Leadership (PGDE), will be the same.

Now, more than ever, we need brilliant people in the classroom. People with leadership potential, people ready to take on a challenge, people who want to make a difference.

Don’t wait to change your life, be the person schools need this year.

Our Training Programme offers a salary from day one in the classroom, an internationally-recognised leadership qualification and your chance to be a part of our 15,000-strong network of teachers, leaders and schools.