A PLAN to fast-track ex-servicemen and women into teaching has been cautiously welcomed by education professionals in East Lancashire.

The government has announced that its Troops to Teachers scheme, which will be introduced from September, will make it easier for highly-skilled former members of the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force to work in the classroom.

Education minister David Laws said children would benefit from the leadership, discipline, motivation and teamwork the Armed Services taught.

But Mike Tull, headteacher at Marsden Heights Community College, in Nelson, said he was ‘concerned’ about some of the strategies.

He said: “One of the concerns I have is that the education within the Armed Forces is task orientated.

“If somebody is successful as a trainer in discipline and order, that is fundamentally different from the ability to be able to go into classes of students who are maybe mixed ability and who will have varying needs.

“They need to be inspired and taught by professionals with an appropriate level of knowledge, skills and understanding about how people learn.

“If somebody has been successful within the military, it does not mean they are better qualified and deserve to have fast-track entry into a profession.”

Under the new scheme, service leavers with degrees will be able to enrol on teacher training programmes with additional bespoke training and £2,000 bursary uplifts.

From January 2014, skilled service leavers without degrees will be able to complete a two-year, school-based, salaried training programme.

These service leavers will be the only people able to start training as a teacher without a degree and be qualified within two years.

Simon Jones, Blackburn with Darwen representative for the National Union of Teachers, said: "Teaching is a wonderful profession and we welcome applicants from all walks of life who feel they can make the commitment to teach, including ex-military personnel.

"However, teaching involves a complex mix of knowledge, skills and understanding of child development and trainees need both a high level of education themselves and thorough teacher training before they can take on the demands of educating our young people.”