GovWire

Eligible FE teachers can claim a targeted retention incentive payment for teaching specific courses in the following subject areas:

• building and construction
• chemistry
• computing, including digital and ICT
• early years
• engineering and manufacturing, including transport engineering and electronics
• maths
• physics

Check the full list of eligible FE courses to see if you can claim a payment. Well update the eligibility criteria for the 2025 to 2026 academic year in spring 2025.

When to apply

You must be in the first 5 years of your FE teaching career to claim. This means it must be 5 years or less since you started your first role with teaching responsibilities at an FE provider in England.

If you were employed as a teacher in FE in England in the 2019 to 2020 academic year or before, youre not eligible to claim.

Use the table to find out when you can apply for a targeted retention incentive payment.

The academic year runs from 1 September to 31 August. Applications open in October of the year shown.

You cannot make a claim for a specific year once the application window for that year has closed.

What youll get

For the 2024 to 2025 academic year, the targeted retention incentive payment ranges from 2,000 to 6,000, depending on:

• the provider you teach at
• the number of hours you teach

If you teach at an FE provider that has higher levels of disadvantage, youll receive a higher payment. This is based on the proportion of 16 to 19 students who attract disadvantage funding.

A list of eligible further education providers and payment values (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 34.8 KB) is available.

Who is eligible

You can apply for a payment if you:

• are employed as an FE teacher in England
• are employed by an eligible FE provider
• are in your first 5 years of teaching in FE in England
• spend at least half of your hours, on average, teaching eligible FE courses at level 3 or below
• teach more than 2 and a half hours a week
• spend at least half of your hours teaching 16- to 19-year-olds (study programmes, T levels or apprenticeships) including people up to the age of 25 with an EHCP
• are not currently subject to any formal performance measures as a result of continuous poor teaching standards
• are not currently subject to any disciplinary action

You must also meet one of the following criteria:

• have a teaching qualification
• are currently enrolled on and working towards a teaching qualification
• intend to enrol on a teaching qualification within the next 12 months

If you only hold an assessor qualification, you are only eligible if either you:

• are enrolled on a teaching qualification
• intend to enrol on a teaching qualification in the next 12 months

We also expect you to have developed, enhanced and maintained your teaching competences and practices, or have plans to do so.

Eligible FE providers

An eligible FE provider in England must employ you as a teacher. Eligible providers are:

• statutory FE providers, such as:
  • FE colleges
  • sixth-form colleges
  • designated institutions
• 16- to 19-only academies and schools

Eligible roles

You must be employed directly by an eligible provider as a member of staff with teaching responsibilities, in a role such as:

• advanced practitioner
• practitioner
• instructor
• lecturer
• teacher
• trainer
• tutor

Breaks in teaching

Youre still eligible if you have some breaks in your normal employment such as:

• sickness
• maternity or paternity leave
• parental or adoption leave

If you submit a claim during breaks in teaching, answer the questions based on your usual working pattern during normal employment.

You should apply for payments as usual during any breaks in teaching, before the claim window closes each year.

When youll not be eligible

Youll not be eligible to claim if you:

• are employed as support staff or a non-teaching leader
• are employed by a private supply-teaching agency or a non-statutory FE provider
• were employed as an FE teacher in England in or before the 2019 to 2020 academic year
• have already claimed a targeted retention incentive payment for 2024 to 2025
• are receiving an FE initial teacher education bursary for 2024 to 2025

Eligible FE courses

We have included subjects that are:

• the same as those eligible for the targeted retention incentive for secondary school teachers

• linked to critical skills priorities and currently have the highest unfilled teaching vacancy rates in the statutory FE sector

Only selected early years courses are eligible. We have listed these separately.

You must spend at least half of your hours, on average, teaching eligible FE courses.

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