Wales: Teachers 'battle to find jobs'

20 May 2011 Last updated at 05:55 GMT Jessica Jones, 28, of Porthmadog, has made 20 job applications since leaving Bangor University and has still to get a permanent job

Only four out of 10 newly-qualified teachers in Wales land substantive jobs in primary or secondary schools after training, according to new figures.

The General Teaching Council for Wales (GTCW) said almost the same proportion of new teachers (37.5%) were having to rely on supply work.

In 2003, nearly seven in 10 (66%) secured a first job after qualifying.

The Welsh Government said teacher recruitment and the use of supply teachers was a matter for schools.

The GTCW said the number of new teachers landing their first job had dropped 6% over the previous year and was the continuation of a falling trend over the past decade.

It has drawn the figures from the Wales' teaching register, which has nearly 39,000 people registered as eligible to teach in state schools.

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Jessica Jones, 28, of Porthmadog, Gwynedd, has made 20 job applications since teacher training at Bangor University.

"It slowly seems to have been getting worse," she said.

"Not only are you competing with all the trainees of the 2011 cohort, you are also competing with just over a third of last year's cohort that haven't secured positions.

"I've already had my student debt from my first degree. I've had to take another student loan for this year.

"I can't live at home for the rest of my life.

If I can't secure supply work or a permanent position, then I will have to take office work or a bar job.

It should really be something I could fit around supply teaching, because you are called in at the last minute."

GTCW deputy chief executive Hayden Llewellyn said the figures came against a background of "a little fluctuation over the years".

He said: "There is now a very clear trend towards newly-qualified teachers failing to get substantive jobs and having to register with agencies in order to get temporary and intermittent work as supply teachers at various different schools."

The Welsh Government said Education Minister Leighton Andrews had recently announced a 20-point plan to reform education in Wales which included a review of teacher training in Wales.

A spokesperson said: "Alongside this work we are also evaluating the number of Welsh [teacher training] places we fund in the future.

"The latest (2008/09) published figures show that, for students completing [teacher training] courses in Wales whose teaching activity was known six months after graduation, 81% were in a teaching post, which includes supply work.

"A further 13% were seeking a teaching post and 7% were not seeking a teaching post."

The GTCW register has been published annually since 2002 and covers a range of indicators including the age, gender, ethnicity, qualifications and disability status of teachers and head-teachers.

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