Responding to the Government’s announcement to offer bursaries and scholarships worth up to £31,000 to train teachers in subjects including chemistry, maths, physics, and computing, Jack Worth, NFER Education Workforce Lead, said:
“Our research has shown bursaries are very effective for recruiting more teachers and retaining additional teachers long-term, particularly in shortage subjects such as physics and maths.
“This announcement could go a long way towards helping the Government meet its pledge to recruit and retain 6,500 additional teachers.
“It is also encouraging to see a focus on Further Education as our recent research shows this is a sector which struggles with recruitment and retention compared to schools.
“Additional funding to support the employment-based apprenticeship route in shortage subjects may also enable more teachers to pursue this route."
Update 7 October 2025
DfE guidance was released a day after our response (above) to the department’s press release about bursaries and scholarships worth up to £31,000.
This guidance showed that bursaries for a range of subjects have been cut back.
We have therefore released the following statement from Jack Worth, NFER Education Workforce Lead:
“The DfE has reduced bursaries for a range of subjects, including four subjects which we forecast to be below their respective ITT targets this year. Geography and Biology are down by £21,000 while Design & Technology and Modern Foreign Languages are down by £6,000. Art, music and Religious Education are down by £10,000 to zero and English is down by £5,000 to zero.
“We estimate that these cuts, on their own, could lead to around 2,400 fewer trainees next year, which seems counterproductive for the Government's 6,500 teacher target.
“While these cuts are obviously bad news for schools, it also disappointing that the department yesterday announced and promoted £31,000 of tax-free training incentives for teachers while making no mention of the bursary cuts evident in the DfE guidance released this morning.”