Education Secretary John Swinney has hailed a new teacher training course for people living in rural areas as a way forward to filling much-needed vacancies across the remote north.
Mr Swinney revealed a new course was being launched by the University of Highlands and Islands later this year to encourage people unable to travel to university to take up the profession.
The Deputy First Minister spoke as he met in Inverness the world-leading education and business experts who form Scotland’s International Council of Education Advisers.
Mr Swinney, speaking after a tour of the city’s Cauldeen Primary, said: “We need to make sure individuals living in some of our remote areas can access teaching courses without leaving their own communities.
“For some people with commitments it is not possible for them to attend university courses.
“We are trying to reach out to those people to make it more practical and tangible to learn to be teachers.”
UHI, along with the University of Dundee, will work with rural schools in areas of high deprivation to support between 30 and 50 students in qualifying for a Masters-level diploma in teaching.
The course will run from December this year to June 2020 and allows students to study in their local community via online learning.
The university partnership was chosen as the successful bidder following a procurement exercise by the Scottish Government.
This involved Education Scotland and the General Teaching Council for Scotland in the assessment of the bids.
Mr Swinney added: “Teachers are the foundation of Scotland’s education system and are crucial to our aspiration of closing the poverty-related attainment gap.
“We know that some areas face challenges in recruiting teachers in certain subject areas and this means that we need to think differently about how we attract new recruits into the classroom.
“This innovative proposal is designed to broaden the range of people entering the profession – providing a challenging, yet extremely rewarding, opportunity to train in rural schools within areas of high deprivation.
“Crucially, this route maintains the traditionally high standard of teaching in Scotland and I am pleased to support it with a quarter of million pounds from the Attainment Scotland Fund.”
Dr Morag Redford, Head of Teacher Education, at the University of the Highlands and Islands, said: “This new programme provides an exciting opportunity for high quality graduates to join the teaching profession in rural schools.”
Speaking after the meeting with the International Council of Education Advisers, Mr Swinney said: “In our efforts to create a world-class education system that delivers excellence and equity for all, their advice and insight is an extremely powerful and trusted, independent resource.”