Summer Recruitment Service

Minister Gibb wrote to you on 6 June indicating that this year the DfE will again be offering the Summer Recruitment Service. Candidates will be directed through the Teacher Training Adviser (TTA) service to providers and schools who have confirmed that they will be open in the summer. If you will be recruiting over the summer, let the DfE know by completing the online form by Friday 26 July.

Closing courses on the Find service

We understand that not all providers or schools have the capacity or need to recruit over the summer. If this is the case, you must close your courses on the Find service:

• Go to Publish teacher training courses
• Select the Courses section
• Scroll down to the course you'd like to close
• Select 'Edit' in the Vacancies column
• Select 'There are no vacancies' and 'Publish changes' - this course is now closed

There is also a video guide on how to close your courses available on the government website.

Summer Recruitment and Rejection Rates

Please help to provide a good experience for candidates applying during the summer by processing applications and making offers, or by closing your courses on the Find service if you are not recruiting to them.

Failure to process applications will result in them being ‘Rejected by Default’ (RBD) on UCAS, which may mean a loss of good candidates and teachers to the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) market. We will continue to monitor rejection rates over the summer period and will call you if we think that your course has been left open when it should be closed.

Ensuring decisions are accurately recorded on UCAS is crucial to achieving quality outcomes for candidates, particularly given that as of 1 July, you will only have 20 days before an application is RBD.

Please ensure you select the appropriate response on UCAS, which has a range of options to distinguish between different application outcomes:

• Rejected - e.g. if a candidate is not suitably qualified in their chosen subject
• Withdrawn - if a candidate fails to attend at interview, or does not respond to communications
• Not considered - this can be used if you are unable to consider the candidate when your training course is full. If your course is full, it should be closed on the Find service. Please refer to the steps above.

There is also a free text box, where you can provide more information to applicants regarding your decision. Please refer to the UCAS Teacher Training Admissions Guide and the UCAS Guide to decision and offer-making for further information. Unsuccessful candidates can also be referred to a TTA through the Get Into Teaching line on 0800 389 2500.

Last year, a number of ITT providers successfully engaged with the Summer Recruitment Service, and we are hoping to increase involvement this year. We look forward to working with you to deliver the best possible experience for our future teachers, and we want to continue to help ensure that every candidate can find a course that is right for them.

ITT Recruitment and Allocations Team