Finances

Tuition Fee, with student loan and tax-free bursary

This is by far our most common financial model. All of our non-salaried, tuition fee courses cost £9,250 (£5,500 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 2021-22 Bursary information. You might also qualify for other perks such as student discounts, and Council Tax exemption!

Salaried School Direct (secondary)

Some secondary trainees are employed by their main training school, and are paid a salary whilst they train. They are paid on the unqualified teacher rate.

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).

However, please bear in mind that both the school and the trainee are often better off financially with a non salaried route, supported by a bursary (depending on the subject and the amount of the bursary).

Earning whilst training as a primary trainee

There is no salaried Primary option, unless you have a school who are already willing to pay your salary and then we can arrange for you to do your training whilst employed as an unqualified teacher.

If you do not have a school able to pay your salary, then we have a part time route, which would enable you to train part time, over two years, whilst keeping a part time job. Some schools might be looking for part time Teaching Assistants to help with this, but we cannot organise this on your behalf.

However, it might be possible for you to work as a Teaching Assistant in a school for 2.5 days a week and train on the other 2.5 days. It might be possible that you could be placed in the same school for one of the two years, although it might be more advantageous to gain experience in another setting. Your training would be paid by a student loan, and you might qualify for a means tested maintenance loan.

The part time (unsalaried) code for CTSN is 3FHS. Please contact us if you would like to explore this part time route with a different TSA as, in principle, this ought to be possible.

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 (according to the School’s or Academy Trust’s pay scale).

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.