What teachers do after leaving & implications for pay-setting

This research from the National Foundation for Educational Research (@TheNFER) aimed to inform the setting of teacher pay over the next few years.

Applies to England

Documents

What teachers do next after leaving and the implications for pay-setting

PDF, 779 KB, 88 pages

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Details

This research was commissioned by the Office of Manpower Economics

Key findings include:

• only two per cent of teachers who left teaching switched to a different professional or managerial career
• more than two-thirds (72 per cent) of teachers who left for another job remained working in the wider education and childcare sector after leaving
• teachers who left teaching for another job tended to earn more than when they were a teacher, but less than otherwise similar teachers who stayed in teaching
• earnings after leaving teaching tended to differ across gender, phase and experience
• relative to similar teachers who stayed in teaching, female, primary and experienced teachers who left teaching tended to earn less than male, secondary and inexperienced teachers who left
• teacher pay appears to have become relatively less competitive compared to outside options over the last decade, particularly for early-career teachers