Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many chemistry teachers undertook a chemistry subject knowledge enhancement course in each of the last five years.

There are two types of subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) courses: pre initial teacher training (ITT) SKE, to support recruitment of trainee teachers in shortage subjects; and post ITT SKE, to support workforce challenges in schools.

We have surpassed our target for trainees entering chemistry teacher training in each of the last three years, recruiting 121% of the target in 2011/12, 108% in 2012/13, and 127% in 2013/14.

In addition, the latest annual School Workforce Census (2013)[1] shows that 80.4% of chemistry teachers who teach pupils from years 7 to 13 have a relevant post-A Level qualification, up from 72.7% in the 2010 census[2].

Data for the number of chemistry SKE courses for 2009-2013 is below. Post ITT SKE courses were available only from the academic year 2011/12. SKE course data for 2013/14 is not yet available.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-workforce-in-england-november-2013

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-workforce-in-england-november-2010-provisional