Each project allows students to spend a significant amount of time in school. Students and schools will receive payments reflecting the schools' contribution to the project, and the additional expenses and demands incurred by the students.

Contracts to run the six projects have been awarded, following a proposal in the Government's White Paper 'Schools - achieving success'.

Stephen Timms, Schools Standards Minister, said:

'Teachers, unlike any other profession, have the chance to shape and change young lives. This scheme gives undergraduates new opportunities to consider teaching as a career. It is part of our recruitment, retention and reward strategy to bring an extra 10,000 teachers into our classrooms. Widening training opportunities to meet the individual needs of future teachers will encourage more committed teachers into our schools to help raise standards for all pupils.'

Jill Staley, the TTA's Director of Initial Teacher Training Strategy, said:

'Teacher training programmes are becoming much more flexible and more closely matched to the individual circumstances and experience of those who wish to join the profession.

'The next step is to look at ways in which undergraduates can gain some of the skills, knowledge and understanding needed by new teachers as part of, or alongside, their BA and BSc degree courses, and then cash them in at the start of postgraduate teacher training to become qualified as a teacher more quickly.

'This approach represents a radical development in teacher training which may prove attractive to undergraduates who had not considered teaching as a career. However, before it can be adopted we need detailed practical experience of what it could mean for trainees and trainers, and the pilot schemes have been devised to test key issues.'

The pilot projects will focus on ways in which:

• Students can complete undergraduate credit for QTS in addition to their degree studies (to be undertaken by Warwick University)
• Students can complete credit for QTS as part of their degree studies (Sunderland University)
• Students whose degree studies are closely related to teacher training can supplement their training (Christ Church University College, Canterbury)
• ITT providers can collaborate effectively to provide opportunities for students to gain credit for QTS (Bristol University and the University of the West of England)
• An ITT provider can work with universities who do not offer a QTS programme (Institute of Education, London)
• An Education Action Zone (EAZ), within a local education authority, can work with local schools and higher education institutions to provide undergraduates with the opportunity to gain credits towards QTS (The six EAZs in Liverpool with St Martin's College, Lancaster).

Each pilot scheme can accommodate up to 100 students, who could go on to complete Initial Teacher Training designed to take account of the 'credits' they have acquired.

The organisations contracted to undertake the pilot schemes were chosen to represent a wide range of factors, including quality and breadth of ITT provision and regional factors. They will share their experiences with ITT providers, and prepare evaluation reports at the end of July to inform decisions on whether the 'credit scheme' should be introduced.

Notes to Editors

1. The Government's White Paper 'Schools - achieving success' published in September 2001 says '….we will introduce a pilot scheme to allow students to gain credits towards Qualified Teacher Status while studying for the first degree'. (paragraph 7.6)

2. The Teacher Training Agency was established under the Education Act 1994. Its purpose is to raise standards in schools by attracting able and committed people into teaching and by improving the quality of teacher training. The Agency is responsible for a wide range of initiatives to promote recruitment to the teaching profession; for funding Initial Teacher Training; for further development of the standards for award of Qualified Teacher Status; and working with the New Opportunities Fund for the provision of training in the use of ICT in subject teaching.

3. The Department for Education and Skills will be making regulations covering this scheme in the near future.