Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 17 April 2024 to Question 20858 on Schools: Veterans, what steps her Department plans to take to increase the number of people taking up the undergraduate teaching bursary for veterans.

The £40,000 tax free undergraduate veteran teaching bursary is available to veterans who have left full time employment from the British Army, Royal Air Force, or Royal Navy and enrol on an eligible undergraduate initial teacher training (ITT) course. The bursary is paid over the final two years of the course with £20,000 payable in each year. Veterans who have a degree can undertake postgraduate ITT courses where they can access the bursaries and scholarships of up to £30,000 available on these routes into teaching.

The department remains committed to promoting opportunities for service leavers and veterans, including supporting their journey into teaching in primary, secondary and further education through its broad support services and bursaries. Since the publication of its commitments in the ‘Veterans Strategy Action Plan 2022 to 2024’, the department has ensured that there is tailored support available for the veteran community including dedicated teacher training advisers, webpages, case study blogs on the Get Into Teaching website and information in Civvy Street publications. More information on this support can be found at the following links:

• https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/funding-and-support/if-youre-a-veteran.
• https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/blog/from-the-army-to-teacher-training.
• https://civvystreetmagazine.co.uk/2023/05/bring-your-unique-perspective-to-the-classroom-get-into-teaching-2/.

The department also collaborates with the Career Transition Partnership and British Forces Resettlement Service to provide bespoke webinars, and presence at regional employer fairs. More information about these can be found at the following links:

• https://www.ctp.org.uk/job-finding/directory/get-into-teaching.
• https://www.bfrss.org.uk/profiles/companies/986419/.

The department regularly engages with international governments to share best practice on how to attract and retain talented teachers from all backgrounds and on how to support all teachers in their career journeys. The department’s digital services that manage the ITT application process have been designed to be as user friendly as possible and have been extensively tested with a diverse range of potential applicants to ensure they help remove barriers to great teachers applying for ITT courses.