New teachers ‘could do better’: training

A government initiative to recruit business professionals into teaching is being undermined by poor training, the education watchdog has warned.

Although the quality of professionals who switched career was high, many were being let down by inadequate training, according to an Ofsted report.

The drive to recruit mature professionals began in 2003 – mainly to fill gaps in maths, science and language teaching in England.

The Ofsted report says 20% of lessons given by trainees on the programme had “unsatisfactory” features and nearly half failed to stretch the pupils.

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One-third of the 109 bodies overseeing the scheme had “significant weaknesses” in the way they trained secondary school teachers to teach specialist subjects.

“There was a strong link between the quality of teaching that the trainees achieved and the quality of the training they received,” the report says. “Despite GTP trainees’ high level of commitment, they did not attain high standards of teaching when they received weak training.”