The Tutor Trust are delighted to hear of the latest number of young people going into teaching, through their sector partner TeachFirst. A record-breaking 1,735 trainees joined TeachFirst and will be working in schools from disadvantaged communities over the next two years.

The breakdown of the new cohort reveals some impressive figures:

• The number of recruits increased by 38% this year
• BAME trainees made up 22% of this cohort, up from 15% in 2015
• 30% of trainees in this cohort attended school in a disadvantaged area

The Tutor Trust are proud of the fact that many of our tutors end up working in education, with a number of these having been through TeachFirst. One of our tutors, Grace Johnston joined The Tutor Trust in 2015 as a Primary and Secondary English tutor whilst studying English Language for Education. She completed over 255 tuition hours with us and then went on to become a trainee teacher with TeachFirst in 2018/19. Grace had this to say about her experience as a tutor:

“Working for The Tutor Trust was the best decision I made when at university. It solidified my career choice and gave me the skills and experience I needed to gain a place on the TeachFirst Leadership Development Programme. I’m now working as a full time teacher at a secondary school in Greater Manchester (one that I tutored at no less) and I‘m absolutely loving it.

"I genuinely don’t think I would be doing what I’m doing if I hadn’t got the opportunity to work with Tutor Trust.”

Grace is currently teaching English at The Albion Academy in Salford to pupils in Years 7 to 11.

Jenny Muter, our Quality and Impact Manager, trained with TeachFirst and learnt lots from her experience:

“Having come into education through the TeachFirst Leadership Development Programme, I’m delighted that TeachFirst continue to go from strength to strength and have recruited their biggest ever cohort. Training as a teacher through the LDP gave me an understanding of educational disadvantage that is fundamental to my role at The Tutor Trust.

"We believe that the experience our tutors gain working with a variety of pupils and schools is fantastic preparation for the LDP, and look forward to continuing our partnership with TeachFirst to support young people in challenging communities.”

The Tutor Trust are delighted when our tutors are inspired to work in schools and education. Of the tutors that responded to our end of year survey in the 2018/19 academic year, 65% said they were likely to pursue a career in teaching, whilst 61% said working for the Tutor Trust had made them more likely to go into teaching.

We want to congratulate TeachFirst on the success of their most recent cohort and wish all the best to all our amazing tutors that will go on to have careers in teaching.

To find out more about this recruitment announcement from TeachFirst, follow this link.