What is Early Professional Development?

Between 2001and 2004 Birmingham was one of twelve LEAs piloting new approaches to professional development for teachers in their second and third years, supported by start-up funding from DfES.  This project funding has now been absorbed into schools’ core budgets.

Birmingham’s pilot programme was designed to offer additional support for teachers in their second and third years and support progress following the induction year.

• to meet individual teachers’ personal and professional development needs and to develop their knowledge, understanding and skills
  
  
• to improve teachers’ sense of professional well-being, and so to improve the recruitment and retention of teachers early in their careers.

Evaluation by participating teachers and schools showed that the pilot programmes were highly successful in meeting these objectives.

Building on the pilot, the School Effectiveness Division regards the first five years of teaching as a distinct phase in teachers’ careers and is developing a range of programmes to meet these their needs.