Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 21
21
Accepted in Part
Paragraph: 93
Promote, review and expand veteran bursary schemes for ex-military personnel entering teaching.
Conclusion
We welcome the Department’s continued efforts to encourage ex-military personnel to enter the teaching profession. We view their experience managing people with differing levels of education as extremely valuable to schools. However, the Department should do more to promote the undergraduate bursary for veterans to increase awareness. Further, the Undergraduate veteran bursary scheme and its subject eligibility criteria should also be reviewed and expanded in order to improve uptake. We also recommend the introduction of a non-graduate route specific to ex-military personnel similar to the Undergraduate veteran bursary scheme.
Government Response Summary
The government stated the veteran bursary is advertised and featured in campaigns, committing to consider how to further increase awareness. However, they confirmed the eligibility criteria remain unchanged for 2024-25 and there are no plans to introduce a non-graduate route for ex-military personnel.
Paragraph Reference:
93
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
The £40,000 tax-free undergraduate veteran bursary is advertised on the Get into Teaching website and promoted across the veteran sector. The bursary eligibility criteria for 2024-25 remains unchanged and is focused on mathematics, physics, chemistry, computing and languages. There are no plans to introduce a non-graduate route specific to ex-military personnel. We are unable to provide an update on the number of veterans currently in teaching due to small cohort sizes, however, we can confirm the number of veterans who have started initial teacher training over the last 3 years: 2021/22: 40, 2022/23: 50, 2023/24: 50 (provisional). The Department will keep the issue under review, and consider how to make progress on increasing awareness of teaching amongst veterans. Our recruitment marketing campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’, has recently featured veterans from the armed forces to promote teaching as a career to this group. This is part of our strategy to showcase the wide range of individuals that teach and bring their expertise and experiences from previous careers into the classroom.