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Suffolk and Norfolk teacher trainers look to Greece for recruits £30k for European graduates to teach in Norfolk and Suffolk
(about 17 hours later)
A teacher training group has started seeking recruits from southern Europe because of a "shortage" of top graduates in certain subjects. Graduates from Greece, Portugal and Italy are being offered up to £30,000 to train as teachers in maths, sciences and languages in Norfolk and Suffolk.
Suffolk and Norfolk Initial Teacher Training's adverts target graduates from Italy, Portugal and Greece. Suffolk and Norfolk Initial Teacher Training (Snitt) said it had to be "proactive" to attract the best into teaching key shortage subjects.
It said it hoped to attract "untapped talent" to East Anglia. Trainees will sign a "declaration" agreeing to stay for the two years.
The National Union of Teachers (NUT) said the move may "plunder" talent from countries which, because of high unemployment, are "soft targets". Hilary Buckey, for the National Union of Teachers, accused it of "plundering" talent from Southern Europe.
Geoff Robinson, from Suffolk and Norfolk Initial Teacher Training, said it was "very challenging to attract top graduates in shortage subjects". Graham White, of Suffolk and Norfolk NUT said he had no problem with recruiting teaches from overseas but was concerned they may only stay for the obligatory two years.
The project run by the partnership, which represents Norfolk and Suffolk county councils and more than 100 schools, will support successful applicants to gain professional teaching qualifications in the counties before taking up teaching posts in local schools and colleges. "What's really important from an educational point of view is consistency of approach and also the stability from staff being in a school for a particular period of time."
It is aimed at graduates in maths, physics, chemistry, computing and modern foreign languages who hope to become teachers. Paul Law, from Snitt, said, "We can't put a ball and chain around anyone's leg to make them stay for the long term but there will certainly be an expectation they will stay for two years".
Snitt believes it is the first training organisation to increase bursaries for 2016 recruits by £5,000, and will also be offering them to UK graduates.
What will the European students be paid?
Both counties said they have struggled recently to attract teachers in maths, physics, chemistry, computing and modern foreign languages.
James Joyce, chairman of Norfolk County Council's children's services committee, backed the new European recruitment drive.
"This is only one part of the system for getting the very best teachers," said Mr Joyce.
Nikos Savvas, principal at West Suffolk College, said: "As the region's economy grows, with science and technology playing an increasingly important role, the need for inspiring and engaging teachers in these subjects has never been greater."Nikos Savvas, principal at West Suffolk College, said: "As the region's economy grows, with science and technology playing an increasingly important role, the need for inspiring and engaging teachers in these subjects has never been greater."
Hilary Buckey, regional secretary for the NUT, said there was a nationwide issue with teacher recruitment. A Department for Education spokesman said it wanted all schools to be able to recruit "more high quality teachers" in core academic subjects, which was why it had announced these new "generous" bursaries for 2016.
"We are very soon going to have a teacher shortage crisis because teaching is not seen as an attractive profession and a lot of people are seeking to get out of it."
Lowering bureaucracy and paperwork and improving working conditions, she said, would help ease the current domestic recruitment "challenge" rather than "plundering" talent from southern Europe.
She accused the training partnership of "picking the soft targets" of struggling southern European countries with high levels of unemployment.