Last reviewed on 25 March 2019
Ref: 34839

The government is planning a new national SCITT for computing, despite other subject-specific training centres failing to hit recruitment targets. The Department for Education is looking for organisations to run a "national computing school-centred initial teacher training" (SCITT) programme to "ultimately design a unique and high-quality school-led offer in this priority subject". But other subject-specific SCITTs set up for maths and physics, and languages have failed to recruit their target number of trainees. An initial teacher training (ITT) expert has warned against "piecemeal" recruitment and demanded a national agency, rather than schools, be given responsibility for shortage subjects. James Noble-Rogers, the executive director of the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers, said existing ITT providers were "already struggling to recruit". If the new computing SCITT "simply attracts trainees who would otherwise have gone elsewhere […] there will be no net increase