The organisations, which include local education authorities, Higher Education Institutions, schools and subject speciality organisations, will be able to award around 2,500 GTP places from September 2002. They will be known as Designated Recommending Bodies (DRBs)

Over 3,500 people have already trained to be qualified teachers while being paid a salary on the GTP and the DRBs have been created as a result of the reform of the programme that started in November 2001.

The reforms were designed to make the programme more effective and efficient by reducing the workload associated with accessing GTP places. From now on DRBs will be able to allocate places to individual applicants in the same way that training providers offer places on traditional Initial Teacher Training (ITT) courses. The TTA will retain around 20 per cent of places to allocate to smaller training providers.

DRBs underwent detailed scrutiny of their training and quality assurance procedures in order to be designated. Bids were received from 90 applicants and of these 80 have been approved to manage allocations of GTP places. The TTA will continue to evaluate DRBs' performance, and can remove their status if they fail to meet the necessary standards.

Ralph Tabberer Chief Executive of the TTA said :

'The Graduate Teacher Programme is an excellent option for career changers. It is heavily in demand as a route into teaching, and the new arrangements will make the application process easier to understand and manage.

'The new designated bodies appointed to oversee this important and growing project will take the Graduate Teacher Programme onto the next level of its development and allow thousands more quality graduates into the profession.

'We are determined to ensure throughput and maintain quality of this key route into the profession, and the new devolved management through Designated Recommending Bodies will allow decisions to be taken by those close to the schools in which potential trainees will train.'

Further designation rounds will take place early in 2003 and 2004, and all DRBs will be expected subject to external quality assurance checks, to proceed to full accreditation after three years of operation.

Notes to Editors

1. Details of the successful DRBs and their allocations can be found on the TTA's website www.canteach.gov.uk/community/gtpreform

   DRBs must be able to manage ten or more trainees each academic year. For those intending to train fewer than this a pool of places is held under the existing GTP administrative arrangements. Further information is available on the website www.canteach.gov.uk /routes/grtp.
   

2. The GTP enables trainees aged 24 or over to work as unqualified teachers while following an individual programme of teacher training leading to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). The programme normally takes a year but can be shortened for people with teaching experience. The TTA pays schools a grant of up to £13,000 in a full year towards the cost of employing the trainee and up to £4000 to the school or its training provider for training costs. Since January 2002, additional places have been awarded on the basis of training grants only, where schools are able to meet trainees' salary costs.
3. A working party drawn from groups involved in the delivery of the GTP chaired by TTA Chief Executive Ralph Tabberer delivered its findings in April this year.
4. 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.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES:
TTA Press Office Tel: 0207 925 3855/3735. Out of hours 07771 934629.
email: pressoffice@teach-tta.gov.uk

GENERAL ENQUIRIES: 0207 925 3700

Prospective applicants to the Graduate Teacher Programme should contact
the Teaching Information Line 0845 6000 991.

The full list of Designated Recommending Bodies to award GTP places is as follows :

Agency for Jewish Education
Anglia Polytechnic University
Bath Spa University College Consortium
Birmingham LEA
Bishop Grosseteste College
Bradford College
Bromley Schools Collegiate
Cambridge University & Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Peterborough LEAs
Canterbury Christ Church University
Chester College of Higher Education
CILT
De Montfort University
Dorset LEA
Durham & Darlington Catholic Partnership
East Sussex County Council
Eastwood & Leigh DRB Partnership
EM Direct
e-Qualitas DRB
Essex Advisory and Inspection Service
Forest Independent Primary Collegiate
George Abbot School
GWIST
Hazelwick School
Hertfordshire Regional Partnership
Isle of White Partnership
Kingston upon Hull
Lancashire Consortium
London North Consortium
Luton Teacher Training Partnership
Manchester LEA
Matthew Moss High School
Merseyside and Cheshire GTP Partnership
NEECC (North East Essex Coastal Confederation ITT)
Newham SCITT
Newman College of Higher Education
Ninestiles School
North Bedfordshire Training Partnership (inc. Sharnbrook Upper Training
School)
North East London Partnership
North Lincolnshire Council
Northumbria University
Nottingham Trent University
Oxfordshire LEA, Buckinghamshire LEA, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford
University
Redcar and Cleveland LEA
Saffron Walden and Comberton Training School
South East Midlands GTP Partnership
South London Partnership
South West GTP Consortium
Southend Teacher Training Partnership
Southfields Community College
St. Mary's College
Staffordshire LEA
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
Stoke on Trent LEA, Stoke on Trent Schools, Manchester Metropolitan
University, Derby University, Keele University, Staffordshire University
Suffolk County Council
The Beauchamp Partnership
The Havering Beacon Partnership
The Marches Consortium
The Oakthorpe Primary/ Henry Maynard Infant School Consortium
The Slough Partnership
The University of Reading
The West Berkshire Training Partnership
The West London Graduate Teacher Programme Partnership
Titan Partnership Secondary SCITT
Top Valley School
Two Mile Ash Training School
University College Chichester
University College Worcester
University of Brighton
University of Derby
University of Portsmouth
University of Southampton
University of Sunderland
University of Sussex Institute of Education
University of Warwick
University of Wolverhampton, School of Education Partnership
Wakefield Metropolitan District Council
West Midlands Consortium
Wimbourne Area Training Partnership
Windsor and Maidenhead
Yorkshire and Derbyshire Training Partnership