LISTEN: Moray secondary schools almost 40-teachers short
Moray Council's "struggling" to fill almost 40-teacher jobs
Secondary schools in Moray are missing almost 40-teachers because no one seems to want the jobs.
Laurence Findlay who's in-charge of education for the area says the council's still "struggling" to fill the posts.
But now the local authority's teamed up with the University of the Highlands (UHI) and Islands to offer teacher training courses at its Elgin campus.
They're for graduates who want to teach the subjects physics with science, technological education, and home economics.
Moray Council’s director of education and social care, Laurence Findlay, told MFR News: "The aim of the programme is to produce adaptable, flexible teachers able to collaborate and co-operate with other professionals, ready to face challenges of teaching in the 21st century and commit to the notion of lifelong learning.
"We are delighted that these three subject areas are the ones being trained locally as these are very often the ones we struggle to recruit in the secondary sector."
Moray Council has developed the joint initiative with the UHI to create the training programme for secondary teachers in subjects where vacancies have proved hard to fill.
From August, the university’s Moray College campus will be running the one-year full-time teacher training courses.
The professional graduate diploma in education (PGDE) is accredited by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS).
The courses are full-time with time spent within the university and in schools within Moray, both on placement and as part of the core programme, to provide a balance of theory and practical experiences.
Each course participant will be allocated a school subject mentor and will undertake 19-weeks of full-time school placement over the duration of the programme.
Applicants for the limited number of places must be resident in Moray and have a degree from a UK higher education institution or a degree of equivalent standard from outside the UK.
Applicants will also require to have gained SQA Higher English at Grade C or above (or equivalent) and SQA maths National 5 at Grace C or above (or equivalent).
LISTEN: MFR News reporter Bryan Rutherford talks to Moray Council’s director of education and social care, Laurence Findlay...