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Teacher recruitment - Education Secretary announces campaign to attract more teachers

24th September 2015

The Scottish Government will launch a campaign to encourage more teachers to enter the profession, the Education Secretary announced at the Scottish Learning Festival in Glasgow today.

The recruitment campaign will particularly focus on attracting teachers to STEM subjects - science, technology, engineering and maths.

Ms Constance will also announce funding for projects to boost resources for schools in disadvantaged areas to the audience of teachers and education experts at Scotland's biggest education event at the SECC.

The ‘Inspiring Teachers' campaign will feature figureheads from Scottish business, industry, media and science, sharing their memories of the teachers that inspired them and helped them get where they are today.

The Cabinet Secretary launched the campaign with a blog sharing memories of her own inspiring teacher and a specialist tool for pupils to develop entrepreneurial skills via the Scotland's Enterprising Schools website.

The £1.5 million Access to Education Fund gives young people access to additional resources to remove barriers to learning and raise attainment. This could be delivered through improved IT, mentoring schemes, projects to enhance language skills, help with homework or groups to increase parental engagement.

Ms Constance said:"Teaching is a vital, highly-valued and rewarding profession, an opportunity to use your skills to shape the lives of the next generation.

"We all remember a teacher who inspired us, who brought their subject to life, and we want everyone to share their stories to help attract the best talent into educating young people today.

"We hope that the #inspiringteachers campaign will attract more high-quality, passionate teachers into the profession, particularly in science, technology, engineering and maths where we know there is a demand.

"This is alongside action we already taking to maintain teacher numbers, encourage and support extra graduates into hard-to-recruit subjects and rural areas. For example, the first students graduating from the part-time distance course we funded at the University of Aberdeen are now teaching in Aberdeenshire and Highland Council schools as probationer teachers.

The Cabinet Secretary added:“I make no apology for being ambitious for education in Scotland. Every child should have access to opportunities based on their ability to learn, not their ability to pay.

“We are in the business of breaking down barriers to learning, not creating them. I am determined that no child or young person should have to miss out for financial reasons. That's why I’m announcing schools in every council area in Scotland will share in further Access to Education funding to tackle inequalities and narrow the attainment gap.

“We are taking immediate action to do this, working with schools, teachers, education experts and parents through a range of initiatives including the £100 million Attainment Fund, which is already benefiting more than 300 schools and 21 local authorities."

ngela Constance writes about her inspiring teacher here: www.teachinscotland.org

Teach in Scotland also has details of where you can study for a PGDE, the national salary scale for teachers, and the other great benefits including the extremely competitive annual holiday entitlement and defined benefit pension.

Now in its tenth year, the Scottish Learning Festival will take place on Wednesday September 23 and Thursday September 24 at the SECC in Glasgow.

The £1.5m Access to Education Fund, administered by Education Scotland, is helping schools address barriers to learning experienced by pupils from more deprived backgrounds. The fund is supporting schools, in both 2014/15 and 2015/16, to provide improved IT, coaching and mentoring programmes, parental engagement strategies, curriculum-based outdoor trips or to develop innovative ways of learning to raise attainment, promote attendance and encourage positive engagement.

Details of the new funding allocations are available here: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/inclusionandequalities/accesstoeducation201516.asp