Students are being offered thousands of pounds to follow a teaching career.

The government is giving graduates an incentive to do a PGCE through bursaries, with students who finish their degree with a third in Maths or Physics being allowed to apply for £9,000 in financial help. Students receiving a first can receive up to £25,000 towards a one year course.

Those studying maths based subjects are being encouraged to go into teaching due to a shortage in teachers for the subject areas. Almost 50 per cent of PGCE places for Science, Maths and Technology are unfilled.

Last year the University of Leeds had over 600 applications for the PGCE Secondary programme. This is split between the available routes, which are: Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Modern Foreign Languages.

A second year Artificial Intelligence student said: “I’d most likely make more in my profession over the years than I would being a teacher, even with £25,000.”

Celia Galliard