ALL is very keen to support recruitment and retention with respect to languages teachers.

The most popular languages in schools are French, Spanish and German.

There are also increasingly opportunities in some areas to teach other languages, as part of the mainstream curriculum, or as enrichment classes - Arabic, Bengali, Italian, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Urdu are just a few.

A Labour Government came into power in July 2024 and announced a Curriculum Review which runs until 2025. It will then be clearer to know how teacher supply may be affected in the future. Currently, Languages teachers are in demand and are benefiting from bursaries (£25,000). Additionally for French, German and Spanish, applicants can apply for scholarships (£27,000).

The gov.uk site ‘Get into Teaching’ is an ideal place to start to find out about how to become a teacher, with the option of receiving information sent to your email, and getting free one-to-one support.

You can apply for teacher training online by setting up an account forom the gov.uk site here.

You can usually start applying for teacher training in October, the year before your course starts.

The site gives all the information needed about finding a course, as well as checking if you can get funding, what qualifications you need and whether you need a visa if you’re from outside the UK and Ireland.

Follow the link Join: Trainee teachers to find out about how ALL can give invaluable support at a reduced rate to trainee teachers.

Follow the link Join: ECT teachers to find out about how ALL can continue this support at a reduced rate for the first 2 years of qualified teaching.