Having successfully completed my probationary year, I expected to be beginning my career with some degree of stability. Instead, I have found myself without a teaching post and relying on supply work, while also having to return to other employment to maintain a reliable income.
The uncertainty is difficult. Supply teaching provides valuable experience, but there is no guarantee of regular work, and it can be challenging to develop professionally or feel established within a school community when moving between different schools and classes. Temporary posts can offer more consistency, but they still leave teachers unsure about what will happen when the contract ends.
After investing significant time, effort and money in retraining and successfully completing probation, it is disheartening to be qualified and keen to teach but unable to secure a permanent position. There is also a risk that newly qualified teachers will leave the profession, not because they do not want to teach, but because they cannot manage the financial insecurity of waiting for a permanent opportunity.
I think greater transparency around likely employment prospects, more secure opportunities for newly qualified teachers, and clearer pathways from supply and temporary work into permanent employment would make a significant difference.
This is answer 103 of the 269 written answers that teachers let us quote anonymously in the Scottish Teacher Employment Survey 2026. It answers the survey’s last question: what do the people who make decisions about teacher employment need to know?
We have corrected spelling, added paragraph breaks and removed details that could identify anyone. Words in square brackets are ours.