With missed recruitment targets and continued teaching shortages – are we going to see a teaching crisis? For the third year in a row targets for new trainee teachers in England have been missed. These figures support ongoing concerns within the education sector of a recruitment crisis. This year saw 28,148 graduates start initial teacher training courses, which is 94% off the target set in place. With the population increase due to hit the secondary education schools next year, with an estimated 800,000 additional pupils within secondary education by 2022, experts have estimated that 18,451 secondary trainee teachers would be required for the next academic year. However it raises concerns, with only 15,114 registered, over 3,000 less than required. With ministers trying to make the education sector more attractive to top graduates, the question stands will it be enough. Experts have announced that between 35,000 and 40,000 new trainee teachers are required every year (about 7% – 8% of the workforce) to meet the demands. The government however confirms that not all candidates joining the state education sector come via teacher training courses. It is thought that around half are workers returning to the profession or who are new to the state sector, previously working within the private education, abroad or individuals who have previously qualified but have never undertaken a teaching post. These individuals are part of a separate teacher supply calculation. Dr Mary Bousted – general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers comments: “What the figures don’t capture is that even in subjects where recruitment appears to be close to target, those trainees might not be where they’re most needed once they’re qualified. They also don’t capture the ever-increasing workload and a growing gap between private and public wages in a context of high rents and mortgages, which are driving many excellent teachers out of what can be a deeply rewarding profession.” With all these concerns the government continues to confirm that teaching is a hugely popular profession, with an continued increase in the number of candidates joining since 2008. However figures from TechVac (based on 3,706 state and independent schools responses about job vacancies since the beginning of 2015) show that an English Secondary School advertises on average 5.2 posts per year, with schools needing to recruit throughout the year. With the lack of new recruits, some schools are finding that they are not receiving any applicants for some roles. Head Teacher Ian Tett, comments that some schools in his area are sharing details of unsuccessful applicants that hold suitable qualification to assist in filling others vacancies. NAHT president Tony Draper said: “There’s a drastic shortage, it is severe and it is only going to get worse if they don’t. Teachers are leaving the profession because of workload and stress issues caused by government policies but the biggest issue in this is that they haven’t recruited enough teachers in the first place. The government needs to invest heavily in the recruitment of teachers.”