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The proportion of qualified teacher trainees employed in state schools after graduating has fallen, the latest official data reveals.

Only 71 per cent of teachers who graduated with Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in 2024-25 are now working in a state-funded school, according to from the Department for Education.

But the figures, published as part of the latest release, show that the overall number of postgraduate trainees has gone up compared with the previous year.

Rising postgrad teacher trainee numbers

While the number of postgraduate teacher trainees was previously on a downward trajectory, it has risen in the 2024-25 academic year.

Some 24,668 trainees graduated with QTS in 2024-25, up from 22,760 the previous year and 24,277 in 2022-23.

In 2023, initial teacher training (ITT) providers warned they were under “pressure” to “recruit at all costs”.

At the time, Susan Acland-Hood, the DfE’s permanent secretary, wrote to all ITT providers about the “concerning” trend of “significant rejection rates” for courses.

The that 23,955 postgraduate ITT secondary trainees would need to begin their training in 2024-25 to provide enough new teachers.

Fewer teacher trainees gaining employment

In the latest release, the DfE also makes a provisional estimate of the number of postgraduate trainees who are teaching in a state-funded school in England within 16 months of the end of the academic year.

Around 16,035 teacher trainees with QTS are estimated to be working in a state school from the 2024-25 cohort - an increase from 15,601 in 2023-24, but down from 16,720 in 2022-23.

While the overall number may be higher year-on-year, the proportion of those working in a state school has fallen, meaning a smaller chunk of the teacher-trainee cohort are getting jobs in the state sector than in past years.

The figures come as funding pressures mean schools are increasingly having to tighten their belts on staffing costs, with, for example, major redundancies recently reported at one of the country’s largest multi-academy trusts.

Falling pupil rolls are also a major issue for England’s schools and are having a knock-on effect on recruitment. Primary schools are projected to receive £288 million less in per-pupil funding for 2026-27.

MFL sees largest fall in employed graduates

All subjects have seen a lower proportion of postgraduate trainees employed in schools, today’s data shows.

For modern foreign languages, for example, the proportion of employed graduates has fallen by nine percentage points (from 76 per cent in 2023-24 to 65 per cent in 2024-25).

Language learning in schools has been hit by a series of threats in recent years, including teacher shortages, Brexit and missed targets for those studying the English Baccalaureate.

Computing saw a similar decrease, falling from 75 per cent to 67 per cent over the same time period.

The NAHT school leaders’ union warned that both primary and secondary school leaders are “struggling to recruit”.

It said: “Even though overall pupil numbers are falling in primary schools, this trend is not consistent across the country, and staffing need does not fall neatly in line with rolls.”

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