The Department for Education (DfE) has launched a central online service to help people make applications for teacher training.
The development of ‘Apply for teacher training’, which is available on GOV.UK, has been prompted by a pledge within the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy to use digital systems to make it easier to apply to become a teacher.
It was made available to a limited number of users for testing in November of last year, since when has been used by 77 training providers and 195 candidates.
Laura Tennant, the content designer of the service, said it has been designed with information and guidance to help people from different backgrounds showcase their skills and experience.
“This is not dumbing down our recruitment process but opening it up,” she said. “Just as importantly, training providers can then select, fairly and efficiently, from a wider pool of strong candidates.”
Evidence gathering
The DfE is now gathering evidence from the service on how candidates differ from those taking the earlier approach.
Tenant said it is also ready to test a design that presents information for disabled candidates.
The new service joins others previously developed by DfE, including ‘Find postgraduate teacher training’ ‘Teaching vacancies’ and ‘Get school experience’.
Image from GOV.UK, Open Government Licence v3.0
