Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-11-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase the number of English and mathematics teachers in further education and sixth form colleges; and what effect those steps have had.

Nick Boles

Our FE Workforce Strategy[1], published in 2014, sets out the steps the government has taken to encourage more Mathematics and English teachers to take up posts in further education colleges.

Since 2013, bursaries of up to £25,000 have been available to attract new graduates with relevant degrees to teach Maths and English, and to specialise in teaching students with SEN within the FE sector. These bursaries match those offered to trainee secondary teachers. To date, over 950 bursaries have been provided to graduates.

In March 2015, the Prime Minister announced an investment of £67m in a package of measures to improve the teaching of STEM subjects, including Maths, in secondary schools and sixth form colleges. This will see an additional 2,500 new Maths and Physics teachers trained, and a further 15,000 teachers given additional support to improve their subject knowledge.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/further-education-workforce-strategy

“