Study title

A survey of undergraduate students in England, covering their background, career intentions, sources of careers information, whether they have considered teaching and their views on teaching. The study has important implications for workforce planning in the civil service, and for human capital theory about the social determinants of people's choice of career. It is of interest to non-academic users: teachers' unions, the NCTL and teacher training agency. The findings will identify potential challenges and suggest areas that merit further investigation. The findings can also be seen as working towards a randomised controlled trial in a future project.Understanding the complex determinants of teacher supply is important for effective workforce planning. The current teacher supply 'crisis' is expected to get worse. Despite the body of work in this area the issue has never been investigated in an integrated way, as this project will. We need to know why: demand for teachers has increased, teacher supply is not sufficient to meet demand and the Teacher Supply Model has failed to predict accurately the number of teachers needed, so that targeted and appropriate initiatives can be used. Teacher shortages are at least partly created by government policies as much as by the mere increase in school intake population. Policy measures, such as raising the education and training leaving age to 18, introduction of the English Baccalaureate, changes in admissions criteria to initial teacher training, caps on intake targets for the different routes into teacher training, the level and method of funding to schools, and the increase in number and diversity of schools, can all influence teacher demand and supply. Modelling cannot anticipate such changes years ahead and these factors are rarely considered in accounts of teacher recruitment and retention. Reanalysis of secondary data suggests that the recent historical patterns of teacher numbers are not closely related to the...