An improved contact service through the Returning to Teach (RTT) programme will:

• offer expert advice from trained consultants through the returners information line;
  
• provide an up-dated welcome pack with regional course listings and essential contacts in local authorities and schools;
  
• give news about developments in education through the re-designed magazine Return and a re-vamped web site.
• A second strand of improvements to refresher courses will make it easier for former teachers to catch up on classroom technique.

New flexible training packages include:

• full and part time courses of between six to twelve weeks across the country beginning in the summer, autumn and spring;
  
• distance learning options with flexible, individual support;
  
• personally tailored tutorials for those who have left teaching for more than six years.

The new service is designed to keep teachers in touch while they have been away from teaching; offer help, advice and guidance about returning and improve their preparation should they decide to come back into the profession.

TTA Director of Teacher Recruitment and Supply Mary Doherty said:

'Over the last couple of years more former teachers have returned to teaching. Returners make an important contribution to the workforce. Headteachers, pupils and parents benefit from their wealth of experience.'

'One of the biggest encouragements to teacher returners is the quality of preparatory training. The courses will give insight into recent changes in the classroom, update them on national literacy and numeracy strategies and boost IT skills and behaviour management. The courses also offer a chance to refresh and update teaching skills through supported work in classrooms. Individualised courses boost confidence and ease the transition back into the classroom.

'We have increased funding for returners courses to ensure that they are individually tailored to the subject the returner wants to teach. Bursaries and funding for child-care costs are just the beginning of the benefits those coming back to the classroom will receive. With improved pay and career structures, more classroom assistance, increased use of technology, and improved standards, teaching today really is a rewarding and stimulating profession.'

Notes to editors:

There are approximately 379,600 qualified teachers in England who are currently not teaching (DfES, October 2002). The TTA's contribution to attracting former teachers back to the profession is the commissioning and provision of two key services: returners courses and the Returning to Teach programme (RTT, formerly Keeping in Touch, KIT).

The purpose of returners courses is to attract former teachers who are able and committed and to support them in returning to the profession. In 2001-2, 74% of participants on returners courses have taken up employment as teachers. Courses have a minimum set duration that can be spread flexibly between six and twelve weeks. They provide non-serving teachers with the knowledge, skills and confidence to return to the profession and include lesson observations and valuable teaching practice.

The improved service will offer expert and sensitive one-to-one advice to enquiries about returning to teach, promote opportunities to refresh skills through returners courses or distance learning materials, It will also develop a channel of communication with Recruitment Managers (RMs) and LEAs in order to exchange information on vacancies and pools of potential returners.

All returners courses are run to a TTA specification. Courses include:

insight into recent changes in the classroom, the National Literacy and Numeracy strategies, IT skills and strategies for classroom and behaviour management;
opportunities to refresh and updating skills by experiencing a supported classroom placement, support and mentoring in preparation for returning to the profession.

Participants are entitled to a training bursary of up to £150 per week, up to a maximum of £1500 over the duration of the course. Participants are also eligible for childcare support of up to £150 per week for every child up to the age of 5 years (to a maximum of £1,800 per child for the duration of the course) and up to £70 per week for every child between the age of 5 and 14 years (to a maximum £840 per child for the duration of the course). The minimum eligibility requirement is that participants must have qualified teacher status (QTS).

The TTA has been funding an increasing number of returners courses since 1998. In 2000-2001, 49 courses were funded with 700 places filled, nearly doubling in 2001-2002 to 90 courses with 1400 places filled. Support for childcare was introduced in 2000-2001 under the Excellence in Cities pilot in London, in addition to the training bursary. In 2002-3, 105 courses were funded by a budget of £4.2m.105 TTA - funded returner courses have been commissioned to run annually from March 2003 to March 2006, to recruit 2000 participants per year.

Courses run during Summer, Autumn and Spring across the country on a part-time and full-time basis.

Returners courses are promoted at a local level through radio and newspaper advertising.
More information on returning to teach can be obtained from:

Returners information line: 0845 6000 993
Returners website: www.canteach.gov.uk/returning

Contact the Returning to Teach programme:

E-mail: returners@teach-tta.gov.uk or
write to TTA Returning to Teach, PO Box 3049, Chelmsford, CM1 3YT.

Media enquiries

TTA Press Office Tel: 020 7023 8080
Out of hours: 07771 934629
e-mail: pressoffice@teach-tta.gov.uk
or
Dan Davis/Andrew Millington: 0207 831 3113

General TTA enquiries

870 496 0123
People interested in becoming a teacher should visit the TTA recruitment website or contact the Teaching Information Line (tel: 0845 600 0991 - 0992 for Welsh speakers).

The teacher training agency (TTA) 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 and induction.