Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department plans to take to increase the number of teachers required to deliver the measures outlined in the Skills for Jobs.

The reforms set out in the Skills for Jobs White Paper cannot succeed without outstanding teachers and teaching. The measures announced in the Skills for Jobs white paper come with a total investment of over £65 million in financial year 2021-22, allowing us to deliver greater support for teacher recruitment, retention, and development.

As set out in the white paper, we will launch a national recruitment campaign for teachers in further education (FE) settings and will strengthen Initial Teacher Education so that it is based on clear employer-led standards. We will also continue to offer financial support for FE teacher training in priority subjects and our Taking Teaching Further programme will continue to help industry experts retrain as FE teachers.

In addition to our continuing T Level Professional Development programme, we will also increase the provision of high-quality professional development, including early career and post-COVID-19 support for online and a mixture of remote and face-to-face teaching. We will also facilitate a stronger relationship between industry and education and training providers through the introduction of a new national Workforce and Industry Exchange programme.