Chamber and committees

(a) In 2009-10 the deadlines for applications were published on the Students Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) website.

(b) In 2010-11 the deadlines for applications were published on the SAAS website. In addition all continuing students were emailed twice in autumn 2010, to highlight the guarantee date for processing of applications before course commencement and twice in February 2011 to remind them of the deadline for applications. The deadline for applications was also heavily promoted in SAAS literature, by universities and colleges and on the SAAS Facebook and Twitter sites.

The increase in reminders was part of a concerted communications programme designed to encourage students to apply early and to inform them of any changes to the student support package.

We have no plans to conduct such a survey.

The Scottish Government is determined that teachers should be in employment. The budget agreement with COSLA therefore guarantees enough teaching posts for every new probationer, for every teacher completing probation in summer 2011 to apply for and additional posts to reduce existing teacher unemployment.

We will continue to work with COSLA and local authorities to achieve a better reconciliation between local and national teacher workforce planning with a view to re-establishing an appropriate balance between teacher supply and demand.

In May 2011, 2,218 potential probationary teachers were allocated places on the Teacher Induction Scheme for 2011-12. The number who start, and successfully complete, their probationary year cannot be confirmed until the start and end of the 2011-12 school year respectively.

The number of teaching posts that will available for the school year 2012-13 will depend on local authorities’ recruitment needs at that time.

The Scottish Government’s commitment to teacher employment has now been agreed by all three parties to the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers. The agreement will ensure that there will be a sufficient number of vacancies for all teachers seeking employment in 2011 to apply for.

Recruitment to these vacancies will be in accordance with each local authority’s existing locally agreed procedures which need to comply with current equality and employment legislation.

The following table shows how many students entered four year Bachelor of Education/MA and one year full-time and two year part-time Professional Graduate Diploma in Education courses by institution since 2009-10.

BEd/MA and PGDE Intakes

Notes:

The Open University offers a PGDE maths course (five to 10 places have been available). No returns have been received confirming numbers each year entering the course.

The following is the original answer (published on 15 June 2011); see below.

The following table shows how many students entered four year Bachelor of Education/MA and one year full-time and two year part-time Professional Graduate Diploma in Education courses by institution since 2009-10.

BEd/MA and PGDE Intakes

Notes:

The Open University offers a PGDE maths course (five to 10 places have been available). No returns have been received confirming numbers each year entering the course.

The Scottish Government does not hold complete data on the number of applications for places on teacher training courses. However, the following table shows the data we do hold based on annual returns from higher education institutions. The returns do not always cover all institutions or courses. They also include people applying to two or more institutions who will therefore be counted twice or more often.

The following table shows the number of Bachelor of Education/MA (four years) and Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (one year) course places funded by the Scottish Funding Council through its main teaching grant in the General Fund for Universities and those over baseline numbers funded separately by the Scottish Government in each of the last five years.

Total Full-Time Equivalent BEd/MA and PGDE Student Places, 2006-07 to 2010-11

The following table shows the number of Bachelor of Education/MA (four years) and Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (one year) course places the Scottish Funding Council will fund through its main teaching grant in the General Fund for Universities and those over baseline numbers which will be funded separately by the Scottish Government in 2011-12.

Total Full-Time Equivalent BEd/MA and PGDE Student Places, 2011-12

In May 2011 2,218 potential probationary teachers were allocated places on the Teacher Induction Scheme for 2011-12. The number that finally take up their places cannot be confirmed until the start of the new school term in August 2011.