Guidance

Funding: initial teacher training (ITT), academic year 2021 to 2022

Updated 10 October 2023

Applies to England

1. Overview

The Department for Education (DfE) is responsible for:

  • managing grant funding associated with initial teacher training (ITT)
  • monitoring the public cost of student loans accessed by trainees

This guidance refers to ITT funding for the academic year 2021 to 2022. For the academic year 2020 to 2021, read Funding: initial teacher training (ITT), academic year 2020 to 2021.

2. Postgraduate bursaries and scholarships

Bursaries and scholarships are available to trainees on tuition fee-based teacher training courses in England that lead to the award of qualified teacher status (QTS).

Receiving a bursary or scholarship depends on:

  • highest relevant academic award
  • ITT subject

Trainees are only eligible for a bursary or scholarship if they’re entitled to support under the student finance criteria. Trainees from the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland should read Studying in the UK: guidance for EU students.

Applicants with a degree from outside the UK can contact Get into Teaching or their chosen training provider for more advice.

For 2021 to 2022, we are offering bursaries of:

  • £24,000 in chemistry, computing, maths and physics
  • £10,000 in languages and classics
  • £7,000 in biology

Applicants may be eligible for a bursary if they have a 1st, 2.1 or 2.2, or if they hold Master’s or PhD.

We are also offering scholarships of £26,000 in chemistry, computing, maths and physics. Scholarships also come with a package of additional benefits from the appropriate professional body.

Each of the professional bodies that offer scholarships sets the award criteria. Scholarship applicants should apply to the relevant professional body. For details, go to Get into Teaching.

Trainees cannot receive both a scholarship and a bursary.

There is more guidance on postgraduate bursaries and scholarships in the Initial teacher training (ITT) bursary: funding manual.

3. Undergraduate bursary

Final year undergraduates may be eligible for a training bursary of £9,000 if:

  • they’re studying a qualified teacher status (QTS) course in secondary mathematics or physics
  • they’re studying an opt-in QTS course in secondary undergraduate computing, languages, mathematics or physics
  • their course started in the academic year 2021 to 2022

They will receive the bursary in the final year of their course.

If an eligible trainee is on a 4-year undergraduate course that leads to QTS and a Master’s degree, they will receive a £9,000 bursary in both the third and fourth years of their course.

There is more guidance on undergraduate bursaries in the Initial teacher training (ITT) bursary: funding manual.

4. Troops to Teachers undergraduate bursary

Undergraduate veterans may be eligible for a £40,000 training bursary if:

  • they’ve left full time employment from the British Army, Royal Air Force or Royal Navy
  • they left no more than 5 years before the start of their course
  • they enrol on an eligible QTS course in secondary biology, chemistry, computing, languages, mathematics or physics
  • their course starts in the academic year 2021 to 2022

Trainees will receive £20,000 in each of the last 2 years of their course, in equal monthly instalments.

There is more guidance on Troops to Teachers undergraduate bursaries in the Initial teacher training (ITT) bursary: funding manual.

5. School Direct (salaried) route

For trainees on a School Direct (salaried) training route, we give grants to School Direct lead schools to contribute to the trainee’s salary and training costs.

The same grant amount is available regardless of the location of the lead school. Grants are paid on a per trainee basis. For 2021 to 2022, we are offering grants of:

  • £24,000 for chemistry, computing, mathematics and physics
  • £10,000 for languages and classics
  • £7,000 for biology

School Direct (salaried) trainees are not eligible for bursaries or scholarships.

There is more guidance about School Direct (salaried) funding in the School Direct (salaried) funding manual.

6. Postgraduate teaching apprenticeships

For the postgraduate teaching apprenticeship training route, we give grants to School Direct lead schools to contribute to the training and trainee salary costs. This grant contributes to the apprentice’s salary and is in addition to funding available from the Education and Skills Funding Agency, which is for training and assessment costs only.

The same grant amount is available regardless of the location of the lead school. Grants are paid on a per trainee basis. For 2021 to 2022, we are offering grants of:

  • £15,000 for chemistry, computing, maths and physics trainees
  • £1,000 for classics and languages trainees

There is more guidance about postgraduate teaching apprenticeship funding in the Postgraduate teaching apprenticeship funding manual.

7. Subject knowledge enhancement (SKE)

We are committed to supporting ITT recruitment and helping candidates gain the depth of subject knowledge they need before starting ITT training, particularly in shortage subjects. SKE courses are fully funded and delivered by universities, schools and private organisations across England.

We will publish the SKE package of support covering the academic year 2020 to 2021, including subjects and courses, towards the end of the calendar year. For more information, read Subject knowledge enhancement: an introduction.

8. Early years ITT

We allocate and fund early years ITT places each academic year. Early years ITT leads to the award of early years teacher status (EYTS).

We provide training bursaries, training grants or employer incentives to attract high-quality graduates to become early years teachers. This funding can only be used to deliver training programmes to support trainees in meeting the early years teachers’ standards.

The early years ITT funding guidance for academic year 2021 to 2022 is available.

9. Grant funding agreements

The grant funding agreement is between the ITT provider or lead school, and DfE. It sets out how to treat the grant funding, along with the relevant funding manuals and DfE grant funding agreement: terms and conditions.

ITT providers and lead schools will need to complete and return the relevant grant funding agreement if:

  • they are a new ITT provider or lead school for School Direct in the academic year 2021 to 2022
  • they did not receive grant funding in the academic year 2020 to 2021, such as training bursary, School Direct (salaried), postgraduate teaching apprenticeship or early years ITT

We will contact the relevant ITT providers and lead schools before the start of academic year 2021 to 2022. We will need to receive and accept the grant funding agreement before we release any grant funding.

For more information, email GFA.ITTFunding@education.gov.uk.

10. Contact us

For funding and audit grant return queries including early years.

ITT funding team

Subject knowledge enhancement team

Early years ITT policy team