Announced today by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), the pre-training courses, which are available at universities and colleges around the country, will enable up to 700 graduates to extend and enhance their subject knowledge before starting their initial teacher training courses.

The maths, physics and chemistry enhancement courses, and the French and German extension courses, are for graduates who want to teach secondary pupils.

The science and mathematics enhancement courses run for six months and allow graduates with either an A-level in the subject, an element of the subject in their degree, or occupational experience, to build on and deepen their knowledge.

The language schemes are designed to meet the needs of schools, and graduates who have one foreign language, by providing the subject knowledge needed to teach a second language in schools. The courses last three months.

Graham Holley, executive director of the TDA, said: “We are trying to get closer to schools’ needs and boost young people’s achievement. There are many graduates who would make excellent teachers but who don’t have the right breadth of knowledge to be able to teach the subject of their choice. These new courses are designed to help more people get that knowledge so they can begin initial teacher training."

The national roll-out of the pre-training courses is timely as teaching has recently been identified as the number one choice of career for final year students* and also the first choice of profession among career changers**.

There are no fees for the courses and a bursary of £150 per week is available for the duration. To be eligible, candidates must have secured a place on an accredited initial teacher training programme.

Once an enhancement course has been completed, eligible trainees on postgraduate courses are entitled to a training bursary worth £6,000 - £9,000. Newly qualified teachers (NQTs) with a PGCE in maths, science or languages may also be eligible for a taxable ‘Golden Hello’ payment worth £2,500 - £5,000 after successfully completing their induction period. Those with a PGCE in modern languages may receive £2,500.

To find out more, visit www.teach.gov.uk/

Media enquiries

Mel Garfield / Andi Neophytou / Michael Sheen at Band & Brown Communications.

Tel: 020 7419 7312 / 6949 / 8616
E-mail: mel@bbpr.com / andi@bbpr.com / michael.sheen@bbpr.com

General TDA enquiries

0870 496 0123

Notes for editors

*The UK Graduate Careers Survey, High Fliers Research Ltd, conducted among 16,113 final year students at 30 universities in the UK and Ireland, showed teaching, media and marketing as the top three career destinations of choice.

**Top Choice for Career Changers conducted among 1,778 working graduates, showed teaching as the top choice for career changers.

For more information about how to become a teacher, see http://www.teach.gov.uk/. Personal advice is available from the Teaching Information Line on 0845 6000 991 – 992 for Welsh speakers (minicom 01245 45 43 43).

Applications for most postgraduate initial teacher training courses are processed through the Graduate Teacher Training Registry and can be submitted online at www.gttr.ac.uk. Applications for undergraduate teacher training courses can be made via the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (www.ucas.ac.uk).

A newly qualified teacher (NQT) can expect to start on a salary of at least £19,161 (£23,001 in inner London) in September 2005. The pay scale for good, experienced classroom teachers who have crossed the threshold rises to at least £30,339 outside London and £35,985 in inner London in September. Additional allowances may be paid to teachers considered to be excellent, and to those who take on management and other responsibilities. The pay scale for head teachers can rise to over £90,000 depending on size of school.

Details are available at www.tda.gov.uk/recruit/thetrainingprocess/coursefunding

The courses providers are:

Mathematics
University of Wolverhampton
Bath Spa University
Roehampton University
Nottingham Trent University
University of Hull
Leeds Trinity and All Saints
Manchester Metropolitan University
University College Chichester
University of Brighton
Plymouth University
Liverpool Hope University
University of Sunderland

Physics
University of East London
Loughborough University
Keele University
St Martin’s College
University of Sussex
Bath Spa University
A consortium between Bradford College, Leeds University and Sheffield Hallam University

Chemistry
Keele University
University of Sussex

French
University of Portsmouth
Liverpool John Moores University
London Metropolitan University
University of Hull

German
University of Portsmouth
Liverpool John Moores University