The fourth briefing in our School Report series explores the issues STEM teachers face and the impact of recruitment and retention issues in their school or college.
A new School Report briefing - ‘The challenge of STEM teacher recruitment and retention’ has been published today. Based on research conducted with 800 STEM teachers across the UK, this report focuses on findings from 647 STEM teachers in secondary schools in England.
It reveals a third of respondents (30%) indicated there was a vacancy in their department at their school. The biggest reported impacts of teacher vacancies were students being taught by nonspecialist teachers (81%), teacher workload having increased (71%) and some students predominantly being taught by substitute teachers (55%).
Nearly 40% of teachers surveyed said that teacher vacancies have resulted in students receiving fewer hands-on practical lessons. This echoes findings from the Science Education Tracker, which showed there has been a marked drop in hands-on practicals in science since 2016.
Just over a quarter of teachers (27%) said vacancies in their department meant they can’t do as many extracurricular activities with students, which we explored further in our ‘How teachers engage with STEM outreach’ briefing as part of this School Report series.
Teacher Shortages are not just a recruitment issue, but also a retention issue. To understand this, we asked respondents if they saw themselves still in the teaching profession in 5 years’ time. Over a third (37%) of respondents said that they either didn’t see themselves (19%) or didn’t know if they saw themselves (19%) still teaching in 5 years’ time.
Becca Gooch, Head of Research, EngineeringUK, said “The impact that increasing teacher shortages is having on both teachers and their students is troubling and needs addressing.
“Given government’s economic and net zero ambitions, including around the industrial strategy priority growth sectors, we need many more young people to choose careers in engineering and technology. For this to happen, it’s vital we have the STEM teaching workforce that will inspire and enable them to do this.
“The Government must address this head-on and make a greater investment specifically in the recruitment and retention of teachers teaching STEM subjects.”
Given government’s economic and net zero ambitions, including around the industrial strategy priority growth sectors, we need many more young people to choose careers in engineering and technology. For this to happen, it’s vital we have the STEM teaching workforce that will inspire and enable them to do this.
— Becca Gooch, Head of Research, EngineeringUK
