The Teacher Training Agency has increased by five per cent the unit of funding it pays providers for each training place.  Since 2002/03, the average unit of funding for initial teacher training has increased by 19 per cent – 13 per cent above inflation.

In addition, providers will continue to receive premium payments worth more than £2,000 for every additional secondary mathematics, modern languages or science trainee they are able to recruit.

The TTA has set aside a total of £246 million of funding for the academic year 2005/06 to fund up to 55,000 places for trainees. This includes 35,000 new entrants to mainstream initial teacher training and 6,500 trainees taking employment-based initial teacher training.

Funding of £160 million has been allocated between 134 accredited providers of initial teacher training across England.

The TTA has also set aside £86 million of funding for the academic year 2005/06 to fund trainees taking employment based initial teacher training through the graduate teacher, registered teacher and overseas trained teacher programmes.

Funding for employment-based routes has been allocated to 104 designated recommending bodies.

Jeremy Coninx, Acting Director of Quality and Funding at the TTA, said:

'"This is the fifth successive year in which the TTA has been able to give above inflation funding increases to teacher training providers. These additional resources help providers to maintain and to improve the quality of teacher training they offer.”

Notes for editors

This News Release applies to England only.

The five per cent increase is the average increase in funding provided by the TTA, per training place, across all providers and courses. This is equal to three per cent above the rate of inflation. The amount training providers will receive from September will range from £3,906 for a primary undergraduate trainee to £5,105 for a trainee taking a secondary science postgraduate course. On top of TTA funding, providers will also receive tuition fees from trainees. For 2004/05, tuition fees were £1,150.

Data collected by TTA shows that over 41,000 people will begin teacher training this academic year (2004/5), the highest number since 1975.