Teacher training schemes show improvement

19 Jan 2007

Ofsted reports released today find improvements in the Graduate Teacher Programme, further education teacher training and vocational teacher training.

An employment-based route into teaching 2003-06 finds that work experience for trainees in the Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP) has improved substantially over three years, with trainees showing greater skills in classroom management than their PGCE peers.

The improvement in work experience is echoed by an overall improvement in teaching on the programme. However, trainees are less able to apply their subject knowledge to teaching and assessment of pupils than PGCE trainees.

This gap is especially apparent for secondary trainees, leading Ofsted’s Head of Institutional Inspection, Andrew Reid, to comment: “Trainees gain considerably from on-the-job training. However, there is still work to be done to further improve the quality of their teaching, particularly to ensure that secondary trainees are given a good grounding in teaching their specialist subject.”

The initial training of further education teachers found the taught aspect of the course is showing improvements.

The practical element of the course is less effective. As with the Graduate Teacher Programme, there are weaknesses in the mentoring of trainees as well as in the trainees’ ability to apply their subject knowledge to teaching.

Trainees are sometimes constrained by their own weaknesses in literacy and numeracy, which training providers do not do enough to assess.

Initial teacher training in vocational subjects, found that half of all training was good or better, and all training was at least satisfactory.

Good providers clearly identify local needs and enrich their courses through strong partnerships with relevant organisations and local businesses.

Training to teach vocational subjects was found to open the profession to trainees who might otherwise have felt that their experience and qualifications were insufficient. In fact, inspectors found that trainees’ previous work experience had a positive impact on their teaching.

As in the further education training report, there are some weaknesses in the work-based element of the course, including a lack of opportunities for trainees to teach across the full age and course range available. There were also problems with key skills, as identified in the FE teacher training report.

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