New figures released today show that over one in ten newly qualified teachers in Scotland are still out of work after having completed their year’s training.
Although the survey, carried out by the General Teaching Council for Scotland, revealed that unemployment rates for teachers was continuing to fall on the whole, the Educational Institute for Scotland maintain that “much more still needs to be done”.
The GTC Scotland figures, taken from their annual spring survey of newly qualified teachers, show that unemployment amongst probationers fell from 16.2% in spring 2011 to its current level of 12%.
Meanwhile the proportion of them finding full time permanent contracts was up to 24.9% from 20.5% during the same period.
Anthony Finn, Chief Executive of the General Teaching Council for Scotland said:
“The GTC Scotland carries out this survey of probationers every year and reports its findings to the Scottish Government.
“These figures show an improving picture of the job prospects for our probationer teachers. There are clearly still difficulties; too many talented teachers are struggling to find employment and there appears to be a prevalence of temporary teaching contracts which cannot be good for the stability of the profession, and the consistency of teaching for our young people.”
The purpose of the survey is to gain information on teachers’ experiences of obtaining employment after having completed the standard for full registration with the GTC Scotland and becoming eligible to apply for a permanent post in Scotland.
However, only 623 out of 2748 applicable teachers responded to the survey.
Commenting on the publication today, EIS General Secretary Larry Flanagan said:
“These figures show that employment prospects for newly qualified teachers have improved over the past year, though much more still needs to be done to ensure that sufficient numbers of stable employment opportunities are made available across Scotland.
“The agreement that was reached last year between the EIS, the Scottish Government and local authorities placed an emphasis on securing teaching jobs and creating employment opportunities by guaranteeing a set number of teaching posts across Scotland.
“The evidence provided by the GTCS survey is that this agreement has had a positive impact on the employment of newly qualified teachers, although we recognise that there is a need to re-visit the issue of short term supply teachers.”
