ABSTRACT
The significance of the induction period for beginning teachers has recently been highlighted by Her Majesty's Inspectorate (HMI 1992) and by the publication of an important document from the General Teaching Council for England and Wales (GTC 1992). In addition, since 1992 the Department for Education, through its Grants for Education Support and Training (GEST) scheme, has helped stimulate improvements in induction and supported LEAs in the training of their newly-qualified teachers (NQTs). In the first year of the grant forty-three authorities were successful in their bids for funds, whereas in 1993–94 all LEAs submitting satisfactory bids were supported. The Department has also made funds available directly to grant-maintained schools and some are allocating certain monies (e.g. 32,000) to each NQT specifically for induction purposes. The DFE's objectives in supporting expenditure by LEAs and GM schools on induction training are five-fold. They are to:
improve the links between initial teacher training, induction of NQTs and INSET during the early years of teachers' careers, particularly through the development of profiling and competence-based approaches to professional development;
improve coordination between the induction activities of LEAs and those of schools;
encourage provision which is carefully differentiated to meet the particular needs of individual teachers and groups of teachers who will have obtained qualified teacher status through a variety of different routes;
help to ensure that those responsible for induction training are effectively prepared for this role;
help to improve the quality of written guidance and other materials used in the induction of NQTs.
(DFE 1992)