A new campaign has been launched to find teachers to fill a plethora of classroom vacancies in Moray.
The council has formed a partnership with the University of the Highlands and Islands to create a programme, specifically designed to train secondary school teachers in subjects which have been notoriously hard to fill.
From August, the university’s Moray College campus in Elgin will run one-year teacher training courses in physics with science, technological education and home economics.
Those who successfully complete the course will be awarded a professional graduate diploma in education, which is accredited by the General Teaching Council for Scotland.
The courses are full-time, with hours split between the university and classrooms.
Every trainee will be allocated a school subject mentor, and will undertake 19 weeks of full-time school placement over the duration of the programme.
A limited number of places are available on the course, and applicants must reside in Moray and have a degree from a UK higher education institution or a degree of equivalent standard from outside the UK.
Moray Council’s director of education and social care, Laurence Findlay, said he was “delighted” at the efforts being made to ease the teaching shortages.
He said: “The aim of the programme is to produce adaptable, flexible teachers ready to face challenges of teaching.
“We are delighted that these three subject areas are the ones being trained locally, as these are the ones we struggle to recruit for in the secondary sector.”