Key Takeaways
- England’s teacher recruitment crisis is worsening, with the government targeting 6,500 additional teachers and STEM retention rates consistently 4–7 percentage points below non-STEM subjects.
- School budgets face a potential £2.6 billion real-terms cut between 2025–26 and 2028–29, making cost-effective workforce strategies essential.
- The Postgraduate Teaching Apprenticeship (PGTA) lets schools develop their own qualified teachers using apprenticeship levy funding. There is no direct cost for levy-paying schools, and smaller schools have 95% of costs covered.
- A structured CPD platform gives school leaders auditable evidence of staff development, supports ECTs and middle leaders, and is increasingly important under the school report card accountability framework.
- Using apprenticeships and CPD together as a single workforce strategy addresses both sides of the teacher supply problem: bringing new teachers in and keeping experienced ones from leaving.
The teacher recruitment and retention crisis in England is not easing up. With school budgets under serious pressure heading into 2026–27, headteachers and school business managers are being asked to do more with less: recruit more staff, develop the ones they have, and still deliver strong outcomes for pupils.
Funded apprenticeship routes and structured CPD are two of the most practical tools available to school leaders right now. Here’s why they matter and how to make the most of them.
The Scale of the Challenge
The government has committed to recruiting 6,500 additional teachers by the end of this Parliament, a pledge that reflects just how serious the shortage has become.¹ Secondary schools are under the most pressure, with STEM subjects particularly affected. According to government data published in response to the Education Committee’s inquiry, retention rates for STEM teachers have been 4–7 percentage points lower than for non-STEM colleagues in every cohort recorded since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.²
The budget picture makes it harder still. Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that if the Department for Education’s budget is treated as “unprotected” spending, it could face a £2.6 billion real-terms cut between 2025–26 and 2028–29.³ Schools already direct the vast majority of their spending towards staffing, leaving little room for costly recruitment mistakes or avoidable turnover.
The pattern this creates is a familiar one: experienced staff leave, mentoring capacity thins out, early career teachers feel under-supported, and more leave as a result. The question for school leaders is not whether this is a problem. It’s what practical steps they can take with the levers available to them.
The Opportunity Hidden in the Apprenticeship Levy
One of the most underused levers in schools is the apprenticeship levy. For many school leaders, levy funding sits in a digital account quietly expiring: money that has already been paid and is available to use, but often isn’t.
The Postgraduate Teaching Apprenticeship (PGTA) allows schools to develop their own teachers from within, turning teaching assistants, HLTAs, and other support staff into fully qualified teachers, with course fees covered through levy funding. For levy-paying schools (those with a payroll above £3 million), the funding is already there. For smaller schools, the government covers 95% of the cost through co-investment.
The case for this route goes beyond cost. Staff who train within your school already know your pupils, your ethos, and your community. They tend to stay. And developing talent internally builds the kind of institutional knowledge and mentoring capacity that no external recruitment process can replicate.
The practical benefits for schools using the PGTA route include:
- No agency fees or advertising costs
- Reduced dependence on the external recruitment market
- A stronger internal pipeline for middle and senior leadership
- Improved retention, because staff who are invested in are more likely to stay
Why CPD Has to Be More Than INSET Days
While apprenticeships help bring new qualified teachers into your school, professional development is what keeps the ones you already have.
Workload and a lack of career progression are consistently cited among the main reasons teachers leave the profession. Parliament’s Education Committee, following its inquiry into teacher recruitment and retention, highlighted the need for stronger professional development pathways as a key part of any credible retention strategy.⁴
The reality in many schools is that CPD is fragmented: a handful of INSET days, a few externally booked courses, and limited visibility of whether any of it has made a difference. For a headteacher needing to demonstrate to Ofsted that staff development is genuinely embedded in the school’s culture, that picture is difficult to evidence.
A structured CPD platform shifts this. When professional development is centralised, trackable, and available on demand, school leaders can:
- Maintain consistency across their whole staff body
- Build auditable records for Ofsted, governors, and inspection reports
- Allow teachers to engage with CPD around their teaching commitments
- Identify and address skills gaps proactively
- Provide targeted support for ECTs and staff moving into leadership roles
With school report cards increasing accountability at every level, having a CPD system that generates real, usable evidence is no longer a nice-to-have.
Treating Them as a Single Strategy
The schools making the most headway on workforce development tend not to treat apprenticeships and CPD as separate projects. They treat them as two parts of the same plan.
Apprenticeships bring new qualified teachers into the school. CPD keeps existing staff growing, engaged, and ready to take on more responsibility. Together, they tackle the two core problems driving the teacher supply crisis: too few people entering the profession through affordable routes, and too many experienced teachers leaving before they need to.
Both can be accessed without the kind of expenditure that strains an already tight budget, which makes this combination worth taking seriously.
Practical First Steps
For school leaders thinking about workforce strategy ahead of 2026–27, a few starting points worth considering:
- Check your apprenticeship levy balance. Speak to your MAT or local authority about what’s sitting in your account and how to access it. If you’re a smaller school, confirm your co-investment eligibility, as the government covers 95% of training costs for non-levy payers.
- Identify internal candidates. Teaching assistants with degrees are well-placed for the PGTA route. Who on your staff has the potential to become a qualified teacher, and what’s stopping them from taking that step?
- Audit your CPD provision honestly. Is what you’re doing generating the evidence you’d need for an inspection? Is it making a tangible difference to staff confidence and capability?
- Map your retention risks. Which staff are most likely to leave, and why? Structured development and clear career pathways are among the most cost-effective retention tools available, and often cheaper than replacing someone who walks out the door.
How Academize Can Help
At Academize, we work directly with schools on both sides of this challenge. Our CPD platform is built for busy school environments, accessible on demand, fully trackable, and designed to generate the kind of evidence that holds up under scrutiny.
We also support schools through funded apprenticeship programmes, helping you understand your levy position, identify the right internal candidates, and build a sustainable pipeline of qualified teachers from your own staff.
If you’re a headteacher, deputy, or school business manager with workforce strategy on your agenda for 2026, we’d be glad to help.
Get in touch with the Academize team ➔
References
- Department for Education, 6,500 Additional Teachers Delivery Plan, February 2026. Available at: gov.uk
- UK Parliament, Teacher Recruitment, Training and Retention: Government Response, 2024. Available at: publications.parliament.uk
- Institute for Fiscal Studies, Cutting Overall Education Spending Would Be Difficult Without Cutting School and College Budgets, May 2025. Available at: ifs.org.uk
- UK Parliament Education Committee, Teacher Recruitment, Training and Retention, March 2023. Available at: committees.parliament.uk
Academize Schools provides CPD platforms and funded apprenticeship support to primary and secondary schools across England.
