ATL warns of possible apprenticeship exploitation

Mary Bousted, the general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, has said she is concerned cash-strapped schools could “exploit” teaching apprentices as a cheaper replacement for qualified staff.

The new one-year vocational route into teaching is being developed due to reforms that mean many large schools will have to take on a certain number of apprentices every year. They will also have to pay the “apprenticeship levy” to fund their training.

But Bousted warned that financially-strained schools could be tempted to “exploit” apprentices as a cheaper replacement for qualified staff.

ATL is calling for unions to have more of a say in the development of the new teaching apprenticeship.

Speaking at a press conference, Bousted said the employers’ group involved in developing the new apprenticeship had been unable to answer her organisation’s “basic questions” around pay, training quality and teaching time, and said the new programme had not been adequately thought-through.

Bousted said: “The danger is that we will get an apprenticeship framework which is exploitative, which is low-paid, where people aren’t getting the decent training, and all those become even more important at a time where there is a funding crisis.

“The temptation will be for some school leaders to take on an apprentice, and they may not wish to do this, but the end result will be exploitation.”