Report on Initial Teacher Education
Dr Shirley Lawes
University College London Institute of Education
The Carter Review of initial teacher training published in January 2015
(https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/carter-review-of-initial-teacher-training) made 18
recommendations about how teacher-training should be taken forward. These included amending
the Teaching Standards to be more explicit about the importance of teachers taking an evidencebased approach, funding in-service subject knowledge enhancement courses for primary teachers,
creating a College of Teaching and developing 'a framework of core content' for initial teacher
training. Carter considers the continued debate around whether ITT should be ‘delivered by SchoolCentred Initial Teacher Training providers or universities , School Direct or not are not terribly
helpful’. Nevertheless, it is clear that a continued shift towards school-based approaches is favoured
although the value of strong partnerships is emphasised. The government welcomed the Carter
report, stating that 'evidence from around the world consistently tells us that the quality of teaching
is the single most important school-based factor determining how well children achieve' and that the
best educational systems 'focus on the practical teaching skills' required by teachers. The
government also applauded the report's emphasis on 'pupil outcomes' and continuing professional
development. We will no doubt soon see how much of the Carter report is adopted and what the
consequences are for Higher Education.
Recruitment to all routes into teaching in Languages has been much slower this year, with many
providers reporting difficulties in recruiting to PGCE, and continuing problems with School Direct. An
number of providers are now recruiting abroad in order to make up the shortfall in UK based
applicants. It remains a challenge to recruit sufficient numbers of dual linguists with required level of
Subject Knowledge and Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) courses continue to be oversubscribed. Recruitment to primary language specialisms continues to be difficult, one of the
problems being that there is no bursary available to attract in primary candidates with knowledge of
a foreign language. There has also been some discussion about the number of PGCE graduates who
do not take up teaching posts. Overall there is much disquiet amongst university-based MFL tutors
as to their future roles and the shifting focus of ITT.