Schools and ministers must make it a priority to retain the influx of new trainee teachers that has come as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and recession.
At the same time, to avoid creating a bottleneck in the teacher recruitment pipeline, schools are being urged not to cut back on the number of training placements they offer.
Analysis this week shows that the number of accepted offers to primary and secondary initial teacher training (ITT) courses is 14 and 20 per cent higher respectively in 2020/21 compared to 2019/20.
Teacher training numbers usually increase at times of economic uncertainty and the latest data shows considerable regional variation, with the largest increases in the West Midlands, London and the North West.