ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the rise of alternative routes into teacher education outside the traditional higher education (HE)-led programmes. Perhaps the highest profile of the alternative providers has been Teach First which recruited its first cohort in 2003. Teach First is a charity whose vision is that no child’s educational success is limited by their socio-economic status. From the beginning, Teach First worked within the system and yet it was quite different from other players in the system. Many people associate Teach First with leadership. In the new programme, leadership is inextricably linked to what we know about teaching and learning. Teach First has certainly benefited from innovations across the sector as well as from high-performing countries across the world. Teach First has engaged with the existing system and entered into partnership with schools and HE. There has been ongoing involvement of HE since the beginning of Teach First.
