The Shortage of Teachers of Craft, Design and Technology

Abstract

While there are no figures available for the precise numbers of teachers of Craft, Design and Technology (CDT) in the schools of England and Wales,the Department of Education and Science estimates that there are approximately 18,600 of them, both qualified and non-qualified, constituting eight per cent of the total teaching force.! Of the 18,600, only four per cent are under 25 years of age, 57 per cent are aged between 25 and 45, and 39 per cent are more than 45 years old. The implications of this age profile of the CDT teaching force in terms of retirement over the next decade or two are clear and disturbing and, as we shall see, it is highly unlikely that an equivalent number of new entrants will replace those who retire or leave teaching for other jobs. At present however between one-fifth and one-quarter of those who can be regarded as teachers of CDT are wholly engaged in administrative and other non-teaching duties and thus probably only about 14,400 are classroom teachers of the subject.