The survey, conducted by Tes Institute and reported by Adi Bloom in this week’s Tes, reveals that three in 10 teaching assistants already have a degree and are interested in qualifying as a teacher. This equates to around 122,000 teaching assistants across all English schools – 75 per cent of these have at least three years’ experience of working in a school.
As reported in the article, Nick Brook, deputy general secretary of the NAHT headteachers’ union, said becoming a qualified teacher after working as a teaching assistant was “a route that is proven to succeed“. “Many schools have grown their own talent in this way, particularly where teachers are most needed in hard-to-recruit subjects,” he said. “Those who have prior experience in schools are likely to stay longer, as they are fully aware of what is involved.”
Those working at HLTA level know, there is an increasing trend for progression to unqualified teacher roles, or QTS status for those with degrees, as the teacher shortage deepens and schools are keen to nurture and keep their experienced support staff.
If you are considering whether to join this ground swell of support staff, TAs and HLTAs, to follow routes to QTS and gain recognition for your teaching why not contact us at the University of Northampton to find out more. You may wish to access our HLTA preparation and assessment and then follow this into a Foundation Degree and Top Up in Learning and Teaching; all of these can interlink to equip you with the qualifications to access a QTS route. If you have a supportive school you can continue to work as a TA or HLTA, still earn a salary but develop and enhance your role and qualifications at the same time.
To find out more, email: hlta@northampton.ac.uk 
or go to https://www.northampton.ac.uk/study/courses/higher-level-teaching-assistant-hlta-programme/
or https://www.northampton.ac.uk/study/courses/learning-and-teaching/
