Anonymous survey answerSurvey Nº 173

It is laughable that there is now a course to help primary teachers retrain as English teachers, given the issues I had getting English work.

Too many training places for English and primary

Published 5 October 2026 · 1 min read

Employment situation: Temporary post
Sector: Secondary

Thinking of leaving

There is a real lack of consideration for the existing workforce. It should be harder to get on to teacher education courses and interview process should be more robust. There are too many applicants and too many places for the number of jobs – for English and primary.

It is laughable that there is now a course to help primary teachers retrain as English teachers, given the issues I had getting English work. I am now in year two as an outreach teacher on temporary contracts.

This is answer 173 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.

Every answer in the report (PDF) Survey results

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