Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have (1) to issue guidance to schools on sponsoring visa applications for teachers of modern foreign languages from other countries, and (2) to better support those international recruits in England.

This government wants to ensure that there are excellent teachers where we need them most, and international teachers and teacher trainees make an important contribution to this, particularly in the teaching of languages.

There is no cap in place for recipients of the Languages Teacher Training Scholarship. 175 is a notional target which enables the British Council to adequately plan recruitment and resourcing to meet the target. We closely monitor recruitment throughout the year and, should it look as though the target will be exceeded, we will engage with the British Council to discuss their capacity to meet any increase in demand.

The department produces guidance for schools on recruiting teachers from overseas, which is accessible here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/recruit-teachers-from-overseas. This includes an overview on how to sponsor skilled worker visas and links to the appropriate Home Office (HO) guidance.

The government has no plans to introduce a visa waiver for language teachers. Language teachers are free to use the immigration system and should be able to obtain a skilled worker visa if they have a job offer from a school that has been approved by the HO, are able to speak, read, write and understand English, and are paid at least the minimum of the relevant teacher pay range.

Overseas nationals who relocate to England this academic year to take up a language, or physics, teaching job in a state-funded school, will still be eligible for the £10,000 International relocation payment (IRP), provided they meet the eligibility requirements. The 2024/25 academic year is the last year of a two-year pilot for the IRP. The department is currently evaluating the first year of the pilot and will make decisions on whether to offer the payment in future years in due course.

All qualified teachers in England are required to have a UK first degree or equivalent qualification. Legislation does not specify that teachers must have a degree in a particular subject or discipline and there are no statutory requirements for secondary trainee teachers to have a degree in a specified subject as long as they meet the teachers’ standards, including those that relate to subject and curriculum knowledge, by the end of their training.

Decisions relating to degree entry criteria ultimately lie with the accredited Initial Teacher Training provider to determine whether an applicant’s qualification meets the requirements. Candidates may also be eligible for subject knowledge enhancement courses to equip them with the subject knowledge required to teach languages in schools.