Discontinuation of FE teacher bursary programme announced

Today DfE confirm that the current FE teacher bursaries will not be continuing beyond the current academic year (2018/19). This applies to both the subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) funding and initial teacher education (ITE) bursaries.  

Apprenticeships and Skills Minister, Anne Milton said:

“Since it was launched in 2013/14 the FE teacher training bursaries programme has supported over 1,900 graduates to become maths or English teachers in the sector.

“This is great news, but we recognise that the sector needs to continue to recruit brilliant teachers with a broad range of qualifications, backgrounds and experiences  – not just the graduates who can access the current bursaries.

“To support this we are investing up to £20m in new programmes designed to recruit and develop FE teachers. This includes our £5m Taking Teaching Further scheme to support up to 150 industry professionals to work in FE, and our £8m professional development offer to help the sector to prepare for the roll-out of new T Levels from 2020. 

“We are also exploring new approaches to supporting the recruitment and retention of teachers in FE – in both technical and academic subject areas to reflect the sector’s changing needs as our transformation of technical education gathers pace.”