The way to finance teacher training varies according to the route you take.
If you opt for university-led training, which generally results in a postgraduate certification in education (PGCE), you will pay tuition fees (usually £9,000). Tax-free bursaries are available, and they vary in size according to the subject you wish to teach and the class of undergraduate degree you hold. If you train as a secondary school physics teacher, for example, and have a first-class degree or PhD, a bursary of up to £30,000 is available – or £25,000 with a second-class degree.
With a 2:2 or higher, eligible maths, computing, languages or geography trainees will receive bursaries of £25,000, tax-free. For other subjects the bursaries are lower, but you will get a minimum £9,000 bursary in most secondary subjects if you have a first-class degree.
Bryony Black, director of initial teacher education at the University of Sheffield, emphasises that the bursaries will change each year, depending on the most sought-after areas. For those training as primary teachers, the bursary is £3,000, unless you specialise in maths, when it rises to £6,000. You can apply for a student loan to top up a bursary.
Danielle O’Hara had a bursary of £12,000 when studying for her teaching qualification. She says: “I used the £12,000 to live on and I took out a student loan to pay for my university fees.” As students don’t have to pay council tax, she found it manageable.
Or you could opt for School Direct, which leads to qualified teacher status (QTS), where training is managed by schools alongside a university. There are two routes: unsalaried and salaried. “The non-salaried School Direct is the same bursary as a university-led course,” says Black. As with university-led training, you will pay tuition fees; most School Direct courses will result in a PGCE.”
The salaried route is usually available to those who have already worked in schools. “The prior work experience is the key thing there, so it has a much smaller target audience,” says Andrew Evans, head of initial teacher education at the University of the West of England. Your tuition fees will be paid, and the schools receive a government grant that varies in size according to location and subject, enabling them to pay your salary, which will be on the unqualified teacher scale (usually about £16,500 a year, but it varies). Finally, the Teach First option also offers a salary on the unqualified teacher scale.
