The National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) have released data to show January was the busiest month in the 2015-2016 academic year, with just over 21,000 registrations of interest in teaching; 14,000 of these were from people working in other industries.

As people start to make changes and set out their new year’s resolutions, one of the biggest moves people make is in their job. If people are unhappy in their current job January is the time they will start to think about other options of which a career change into teaching is one of them. The NCTL’s Get into Teaching website experienced the sharpest rise in traffic during the New Year period, with 400,000 unique web users visiting the site in January 2016 - higher than any month of the year. In the previous year January 2015 there was also more than 10,000 registrations of interest. More than 6,200 people aged 30 or over started initial teacher training in 2016-17 - the highest number of trainees aged 30 or over since 2012-13. This is positive news for the Education industry that has failed to meet the necessary recruitment levels for the fifth year in a row. A shortage in maths, physics, deisgn and technology, computing and business studies fell by 15% of their targets. Worryingly, the decline of support staff over the last decade means teachers have been left with higher responsibilities and workload than ever before. The NCTL is expecting a surge this year support with a series of roadshows highlighting the advantages a teaching profession offers. A television advertising campaign to attract more people in becoming teachers was launched by the Department of Education (DfE) at the start of the year.      

Roger Pope, chair of the NCTL, said: "As a new year begins, we know that a lot of people will be thinking about their careers and whether there's something else out there for them. "Every year, we see an influx of people who change career into teaching, bringing a wealth of experience to help inspire the next generation.” "For those considering finding out more about teaching, our online events are an easily accessible way of deciding on the next step.” "This year you could begin changing hundreds of futures for the better, starting with your own." However, the NAHT heads' union said the government needed to do more to solve a “crisis” in teacher recruitment and retention, pointing out that eight out of 10 school leaders report difficulty with recruitment across all roles. Russell Hobby, the NAHT’s general secretary, said: “Whilst January may well be the most popular month for people to consider a career switch into teaching, the government is still falling short in its duty to guarantee enough teachers of a high enough standard to match the growing school population.” He added: “The answer to the recruitment crisis is staring the government in the face: we need a nationally coordinated approach to fill every vacancy with a high quality professional, and attractive terms and conditions to keep teachers in the profession for longer.” “The solution starts with reversing the £3bn of cuts that schools face and by using the new national funding formula to guarantee that the total education budget is sufficient before it is allocated to schools.” In October 2016, the government revealed that one-third of teachers who began their career in 2010 quit the classroom within five years of qualifying.