Centre for Computing Science Education

There has been an ongoing CS teacher shortage in Scotland for well over a decade, with numbers dropping steadily and now a demographic timebomb on the horizon as a rump of our teacher body approach retirement age.  Already, around one in eight secondary pupils in Scotland are in a school without a CS teacher; only around 30% of schools have more than one CS teacher.  This dire situation coincides with the Scottish Government's adoption of the Scottish Tech Ecosystem Review, one element of which is a radical expansion of the number of pupils leaving school with good computing skills.  Something must be done!

Typical governmental approaches, such as an increased number of initial teacher education places and a bursary programme for career changers, still in place, have not helped teacher numbers at all.  To understand the issues better, in 2019 Professor Judy Robertson at the University of Edinburgh asked undergraduate computer science students all over Scotland why they chose not to follow a career in computing teaching.  The answer was not an imagined lack of job prestige or the relatively low salaries as had been expected - but a fear of becoming de-skilled.  

In her report, Professor Robertson made a recommendation that so-called Braided Careers be considered as a way of addressing the de-skilling concerns of the students.  Braided Careers had been highlighted by the Royal Society in a report published in 2018 as a possible way of addressing teacher shortages in science, mathematics and computing.  Both reports urged further investigation of the concept.

The pandemic hit in 2020 and normal development and exploration across all sectors of the education system was interrupted.  Consideration of braided careers was restarted in 2023 when the University of Glasgow and an Edinburgh-based philanthropist started to work together to consider creative ways of addressing the CS teacher shortage.

A person with a Braided Career has two independent part-time jobs.  In the computing context, we are imagining Braided Careers consisting of a job in the tech sector and a job as a CS teacher in a school.  

In order that individuals make a meaningful contribution in both job contexts, we would expect a 50/50 split, or else 40/60 in either direction.  While the Royal Society report cites 20/80 splits, we expect that both industry and schools would find a 20%, or 1 day per week, contribution too low.

We are imagining that those opting for a Braided Career would be passionate about both domains - contributing strongly and enthusiastically to their tech sector role, while having a vocation for developing young people's abilities through education, coaching, mentoring and so on.

There are many benefits to Braided Careers with teaching.  For a start, imagine what it would have been like for your Physics teacher to illuminate mechanics teaching with relevant details from the bridge design they were working on the day before; or for today's children, how the same user interface guidelines they are learning about in class are being applied by their teacher to ensure inclusivity of access for a new app being developed in his/her other job.

Here are some more:

Societal Benefits

• Students learn from teachers with current, lived experience.
• Boosts fully-qualified CS teacher numbers.
• Increased social mobility – state schools are where the need is greatest.
• Better tech career awareness for students.

Company Benefits

• Demonstrates commitment to education and social good.
• Investing in staff/alternative career path.
• Normalising part-time roles.
• Potentially attract more diverse staff.
• Giving back to tech community.

Sector Benefits

• Larger, more diverse talent pipeline.
• Stronger Industry-Education links.
• Strengthens industry’s reputation as a force for good.

Individual Benefit

• Opportunity to work with and positively influence young people.
• Can explore two career paths at once.
• Continued learning.
• Keep engineering skills fresh.
• More financially viable than teaching alone.
• Expanding professional networks.
• Work-Life Balance & Flexibility.

We are working with philanthropic, industry and school partners to explore the Braided Career concept with a pilot programme.

In this pilot, existing employees in participating companies who wish to move to a Braided Career with teaching will take the 10-month PGDE initial teacher education programme starting in August 2025, sponsored by their company and Scottish Government bursary (if eligible).  They will then move into a two-year braided probation period, splitting their time between their industry role and probationary teacher role in a school, drawing salaries from their company and school.

After the PGDE and braided probation periods are successfully completed, the individual may continue in a braided role with company and a school, or may opt to become full-time in one or the other.

• Pilot start date: the PDGE starts Aug 2025.
• Duration: This is a pilot programme to include pre-PDGE probation period (for grads/new employees), 10 month full time PDGE and 2 year braided career/teaching probation. The pilot will conclude end June 2028 at which point individuals may be offered long term braided career or full time roles in either teaching or industry. See Timeline section below.
• Size of pilot cohort: ideally 6-8
• Number of industry partners: 2-3 (min 2 candidates per company)
• Number/location of partner schools for pilot: 3-4 anticipated.
• Role split during probation: 3 days industry and 2 days teaching
• This could be split differently eg. 3 days teaching 2 days industry, or 50:50 – whatever works best for industry partner, as long as we maintain at least 2 days a week in teaching.
• Could be an opportunity for job sharing within the company
  • 2 participants could share same role in company. Good way to reduce salary costs. 

This assumes that candidates would be working three days per week in industry and two days per week in education in the “braided” period in Years Two and Three.  Where the split is 50/50, or more in favour of the teaching role, the full-time teaching weeks can be relaxed.

Year one

• End June 2025 – all UCAS applications to be submitted (ideally)
• 24 July 2025 - Cut off deadline for someone joining the PGDE programme. That is both applications/interviews in addition to having clarity if they would progress onto the programme.
• 15 Aug 2025: pilot cohort starts 10 month PDGE (includes monthly keep in touch days with industry partner)
• 1-14 July 2026: summer break (recommended)

Year two

• 14 July – 15 Aug 2026: full time in industry role
• 16 Aug 2026: braided career starts (3 days industry and 2 days teaching, or whatever agreed with industry partner)
• December 2026: one week full time teaching to support exams (dates tbc)
• January 2027: one week full time teaching to support exams (dates tbc)
• March 2027: one week full time teaching to support exams (dates tbc)
• April 2027: one week full time teaching to support exams (dates tbc)
• May 2027: one week full time teaching to support exams (dates tbc)
• End June 2027: term ends and 2 weeks summer break (recommended)

Year three

• 14 July – 15 Aug 2027: full time in industry role
• 16 Aug 2027: term starts (resume 3 days industry and 2 days teaching, or whatever agreed with industry partners)
• December 2027: one week full time teaching to support exams (dates tbc)
• January 2028: one week full time teaching to support exams (dates tbc)
• March 2028: one week full time teaching to support exams (dates tbc)
• April 2028: one week full time teaching to support exams (dates tbc)
• May 2028: one week full time teaching to support exams (dates tbc)
• End June 2028: term ends and pilot programme concludes

Entry to PDGE in Computer Science at University of Glasgow

The key criteria from education, bar people skills and passion for working with young people, will be for the candidate to have

• Higher English and Nat 5 Maths (or equivalents).
• Individuals need to have a degree with at least 80 SCQF credit points of Computing Science, 40 of which must be at Year 2 level.  40 credits of the 80 credits must be in at least two of the following: Computer Systems, Software Development, Databases or Information Systems.
• https://www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate/taught/educationsecondary/

STEM £20k Bursary criteria

The Scottish Government offers a £20K STEM bursary to people who meet their criteria. Applicants need to hold a 2.1 degree or meet the minimum initial teacher education (ITE) entry requirement with a relevant masters qualification, the content of which would make them suitable to teach their chosen Bursary-Eligible Teaching Subject.

Applicants need to have been in paid employment for at least 36 months out of the last 84 months (including career breaks and any periods of furlough) https://teachingbursaryinscotland.co.uk/  Individuals are responsible for applying for this bursary themselves.

SAAS financial support to pay for PGDE course fees

Individuals are responsible for applying to SAAS directly. https://www.saas.gov.uk/full-time/postgraduates

If you are a company considering taking part in this pilot, please get in touch with us for more information on expected work patterns and pay.  There are professional regulations around the probation period requiring a minimum number of days teaching, and if the role split gives just 2 days teaching per week, some careful accounting is required to reach the minimum level.  Contact Quintin.Cutts@glasgow.ac.uk in the first instance.