Seeing it from both sides: reasons for withdrawing from one-year secondary postgraduate certificate in education courses

Abstract

Teacher recruitment and retention are a major concern. Recruitment to Postgraduate Certificate in Education courses (PGCE), whilst improving in some subject areas, remains problematic in others; potential teachers are leaving in larger numbers than has formerly been the case. Since 1996-97, initial teacher education providers have been losing about 11% of their intake when previously they had experienced an annual withdrawal rate of 5-6%. This article describes research funded by the Teacher Training Agency which examined the question of PGCE (secondary) student withdrawal from eight higher education institutions in England. Data were obtained from both the students and from the schools in which they were working at the time of withdrawal. The main findings relate to three major concerns: the mentor/student relationship, the workload expected of students and the image of the profession as perceived by the students in schools.