Teacher training group seek recruits from Southern Europe due to top graduate shortage.
Teacher training group SNITT (Suffolk & Norfolk Teacher Training) latest campaign aims to attract the ‘untapped talent’ of graduates from Southern Europe including Italy, Portgual and Greece, who hope to become teachers.
Attracting top graduates to certain subjects can be very challenging. This project will support graduates gain professional teaching qualifications in areas such as maths, physics, chemistry, computing and modern foreign languages.
The trainees are being offered up to £30,000 to train as a teacher in Norfolk and Suffolk, however they will be required to sign a ‘declaration’ to ensure they stay for two year period.
Graham White (Suffolk and Norfolk NUT) along with others is not concerned about the recruitment of teachers from overseas, but fears that the trainee teachers will only stay for the compulsory two year period.
“What is really important from an educational point of view is consistency of approach and also the stability from staff being in a school for a particular period of time.” Graham White.
Nikos Savvas, principal at West Suffolk College, said: “As the region’s economy grows, with science and technology playing an increasingly important role, the need for inspiring and engaging teachers in these subjects has never been greater.”
With teaching no longer being seen as an attractive profession, there are fears of a teacher shortage crisis, with many searching for opportunities within different fields.
However, the SNITT’s latest recruiting strategy has not been supported by all. Hilary Buckey, regional secretary for the National Union of Teachers (NUT), has expressed concerns. Suggesting changes such as improving teaching working conditions, lowering bureaucracy and paperwork. This she said, could ease the recruitment challenges within the teaching sector, rather than “picking the soft target’ from southern Europe, where unemployment is high.