I trained in London, where it is expected that you will move around schools to progress your career, and the number of posts available supports this. However, in my authority in Scotland, it is near impossible to move schools as permanent posts are so few and the number of applicants is so high. I feel this can lead to stagnation within schools and reduces the opportunities we have as professionals.
Furthermore, I do not understand why so many primary teachers are still being trained when there is such a shortage of jobs for them. Our probationer teacher last year said she had been told by the university it was highly unlikely her cohort would get jobs after probation. She did, but I feel this situation is grossly unfair on new career teachers.
This is answer 141 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.