ARTICLE
The teacher engagement challenge
Within the next decade, one in five schoolteachers (20%) will reach the retirement age of 67, compared to 16% of the overall workforce. With only 2% of teachers choosing to work beyond the age of 67, schools that focus on attracting and retaining the next generation of teachers will mitigate the risk of workforce issues in the future.
More than half of teachers have considered leaving the teaching profession
In the past two years, more than half of teachers have considered leaving the teaching profession (58%). This compares to 66% in 2023, which is a good news story and shows that some of the pressure and burnout from the pandemic may be easing. Teachers with 11+ years of experience have reduced their likelihood of leaving from 75% in 2023 to 61% today. Those with 6-10 years’ experience follow this trend from 71% in 2023 to 61% today. Those with five years of experience or less have remained consistent (54% 2023 compared to 51% in 2024).
The main reasons teachers chose to stay in the profession are job security (53%), relationship with students (46%), holidays (46%) and the ability to make a positive impact (40%). Interestingly, those who have not considered leaving teaching are 2.1 times more likely to have remained teaching because of the sense of meaning in their work (54% compared to 26% that have considered leaving teaching).
Likelihood to recommend teaching
Teachers are not just considering leaving teaching; they are also not recommending it to others. Just three in ten teachers (30%) are extremely/very likely to recommend a career in teaching. This is lower than in 2020, when more than half of teachers (53%) were likely to recommend the profession. It has, however, increased slightly from 2023, when just 24% of teachers were likely to recommend a career in teaching.
