How to attract Gen Z into teaching: The new plan pushing for pay rises and more flexible hours

• Almost as many teachers left the profession as joined it last year, according to official figures.
• A charity has created a road map for the government to recruit the thousands of teachers it needs, by making it more appealing to Gen Z.
• Making the pay more competitive will be vital, they say.
• But Gen Z also want more opportunities for career development, and a better work-life balance.

The government is on a mission to recruit more teachers, but a major education charity says getting Gen Z into teaching might mean an industry-wide shake-up.

Teach First has released a new report, creating a roadmap that lays out what the government and schools could do to entice more Gen Zs into careers in the classroom. Research for the report found that Gen Z had a reasonably positive opinion of teaching, with three quarters (73%) saying they felt it was a job that had purpose - the highest of any of the career options listed in the poll.

Over 61% of respondents said they would consider working as a teacher. But at the same time, the charity says recruitment for new was teachers is falling, and the Department for Education’s most recent data on England’s school workforce found that while 44 thousand people started working as teachers last year, more than 43 thousand left the profession.

The Labour government is currently pushing to recruit 6,500 new teachers, just one of a number of ambitious policies in its education portfolio ahead of the general election victory this year. Teach First says that with a new government in place, there was “a rare opportunity to set a fresh agenda” and entice people back to teaching.

Here are some of the charity’s ideas for getting more Gen Z teachers into the classroom:

Boosting pay for teachers

Salary was by far the most significant factor in Gen Z recruitment, Teach First’s report said, with 71% of poll respondents saying it’d be easier to earn a lot of money in another sector. In focus groups, Gen Z students and recent graduates felt that current teacher salaries would mean they were starting their careers on the back foot financially.

In a choice-based experiment testing incentives that would get people to consider teaching, the top four responses were all salary-related. The most popular, chosen by half of the respondents, was a starting salary of £40,000 a year.

“[Salary] will be the first thing on your mind because if you can't afford to live in a house, or get out from your parents’ house, or you can't even go to the shop and buy a chocolate bar when you want to, that is what life is becoming especially for people our age. Without that salary to match, you've just got no chance,” a 23-year-old York student told researchers. A 17-year-old student from North London added: “Things like the cost of living crisis, and house prices and all of that going on right now, I think money is probably needed more than ever, to be honest.”

Teach First’s recommendations for fixing this included giving teachers willing to move to places struggling to recruit £2,000 for relocation - £4,000 if it was a rural area short on transport links. It could also include shuffling the current bursary budget to fund scholarships in subjects with the biggest teacher shortages.

They also said the government needed to increase teacher salaries until they were in the top third of the salary market for new graduates, something that could be achieved by giving teachers a 5.5% pay rise like they did this year - but every year until 2030.

Flexibility and a better work-life balance

Teach First’s research found that while teaching was actually quite a well-respected job, it was still perceived as “difficult” and “stressful”. Good work-life balance has proven to be important to Gen Z, which often includes more flexible working arrangements - with 80% of respondents preferring a hybrid working option. But teaching was seen as being somewhat inflexible, especially when it came to workload and hours.

“I think a work life balance is really important... I think it's really important to be able to have time off and have a lot of holiday and have those experiences outside of work,” a 21-year-old Southampton student told the charity. Nearly half (46%) of poll respondents felt it would be easier to achieve a good work-life balance in another sector.

Teach First’s recommendations included giving all teachers a “flexibility entitlement”. This could mean things like doing teacher-only training days from home, being more flexible about holidays during term time, and potentially even compressing their hours - so they can work fewer days per week.

Some schools were already going the extra mile. One West London secondary school told The Guardian that it was giving staff a double-period off one day per week, which they were using to have a lie-in, do yoga, go for a run, or take their own kids to school. Their headteacher said it was making teachers noticeably happier.

More opportunities for career progression

Gone are the days when people start working for a company, and stay there for the rest of their lives. Gen Z favour variety and the chance to grow in their careers, the report says, and often view them in a non-linear way - open to hopping between different jobs and even fields.

Nearly half (47%) of survey respondents said they would enjoy teaching for a few years, but not their whole career. A recent graduate from Sheffield said: “[I] wouldn't be opposed to moving jobs further down the line. I think working in the same place for a long period of time can get boring.”

Many also thought of teaching as something they could get into later in life, with more than half (57%) thinking it’d be easier to do something new or innovative in another sector. A current student from Watford added: “The only reason I probably wouldn't [go into teaching straight away] is I would think I maybe owe it to myself to try other careers and see where I can go before I settle into teaching. I don't want to regret it if I don't try something before.”

Teach First said that bringing more opportunities for professional development - or even exposure to different industries - into teaching was one solution for reeling in Gen Z. One idea they had was an “open door” recruitment strategy, making it easier for high-achievers from other fields to become teachers through apprenticeships. They also suggested piloting “teacher in residence” secondments - where teachers were paid to go and work in another industry for a while.

Macclesfield Academy was one example of a school going above and beyond in this area, recently supporting one of their physics teachers as they completed a residency at CERN in Switzerland. Principal Mat Galvin said: “Investing in secondments like this is incredibly worthwhile for teachers and their pupils. They can bring back a wealth of new industry knowledge and experiences that teachers don’t have the opportunity to gain in the classroom.”

But it would be hard for schools with tight budgets or in deprived communities without government help, he continued. “If schools could offer teachers industry experience, it could transform teacher recruitment and retention.... While a career in teaching already offers daily variety, industry-led secondments could do wonders for freshening up ideas, providing our communities with different perspectives, and ensuring teachers can continue making a real difference to their pupils.”

What do you think needs to change to get more young graduates interested in a career in teaching? Have your say and make your voice heard by leaving a comment below.