So you think you can teach?

Although teaching is a vital career option to the future success of our country, it is often seen as the back up option. The thing you do if you can’t hack it in the City or if you leave university after multiple degrees and are frankly over qualified, yet lacking the passion to pursue a corporate career. With the steady and stable salaries, the role fails to capture the imagination of the typically avaricious graduate looking to make their mark in the Smoke.

Owning to this, teaching seems to have assumed the stereotype of a safe but cheerless occupation. I always hear that the UK is lacking good teachers and when indulging in my ‘blink and you will miss it’ holiday day’s allowance, I always wonder what it would like to have 5 months off a year and still get paid.

Good news for those planning on pursuing this fun and rewarding career and even better news for those wanting to teach maths. The government has introduced new teacher training scholarships for maths graduates in the 2013/14 academic year. First class degree graduates will receive a tax free bursary of £20,000, those with a 2:1 will get £15,000 and a 2:2 trainees will land £12,000.

According to recent figures released from the Teaching Agency, the proportion of maths graduates entering training with a 2:1 degree or better has risen from 51 to 62 per cent over the last year. The authorities are keen to keep this figure rising. Now has never been a better or more lucrative to teach maths!