Finances

There are many different ways in which initial teacher training with CTSN SCITT is financed:

Tuition fee, with student loan and/or bursary
Salaried school direct (Secondary)
Part time accelerated route (Primary)
Apprenticeship
Scholarship

Tuition Fee, with student loan and tax-free bursary

This is our most common financial model. All of our non-salaried, tuition fee courses cost £9,000 (£4,500 per year for part time trainees), which is usually paid via a student loan. In addition, many secondary subjects qualify for a tax free training bursary, which might be as much as £26,000 for the shortage subjects. This means that…

many (secondary) trainees are financially better off following a non salaried route, with a tax free bursary.

Click here for the 2019-20 Bursary information. You’d also qualify for other perks such as student discounts, and Council Tax exemption!

Salaried School Direct (secondary only)

Some secondary trainees are employed by their main training school, and are paid a salary whilst they train. This is on the unqualified teacher rate, usually at UQ1 (around £17,000), which is less than the bursary payments, and is also taxable income. This is particularly advantageous for trainees who know the school – eg if they are a Teaching Assistant who wants to become a teacher in the same school. Sometimes, if recruitment is difficult, schools might employ an unqualified teacher and ‘train her up’ through CTSN SCITT. The school pays for the training, often assisted by a grant from DfE (Department for Education).

Part Time Accelerated Route (PTAR) (Primary only)

Many small primary schools cannot afford to pay trainee teachers the unqualified teacher’s salary, and the PTAR is an attempt to get some funding for primary trainees. Essentially, a PTAR trainee is employed part time (0.4) by the school, for the 10 months of the course (around £5,700 in total); but their training is accelerated so that they still complete the course in one year; the additional training is not salaried.

Apprenticeship

CTSN SCITT is an accredited Graduate Teacher Apprenticeship Provider. This means that a trainee would be employed by the school, as an unqualified teacher (usually UQ1 / around £17,000). The cost of the training can be paid from the Apprenticeship Levy. Apprenticeships usually begin in July, so that the trainee can complete the End Point Assessment of the Apprenticeship, at the end of the training year. You cannot apply directly for a scholarship training route. First there needs to be an employing school; then the school would ask CTSN SCITT to provide apprenticeship training. This is most suited to schools who are looking to up-skill an existing employee, eg a Teaching Assistant, or where schools might be using the apprenticeship scheme to recruit staff to particular shortage subjects.

Scholarship

Trainees in physics, maths, chemistry, computing, languages or geography can apply for a scholarship, worth £28,000. Scholarships are awarded by the subject associations and, in addition to financial support, there are other perks. See get into teaching for more information.

Full details of funding are available on the DfE Get Into Teaching Website: click here