COVID and change in the public sector: A case study of newly qualified teachers

The COVID pandemic is having fundamental impacts on society which will have repercussions for years to come. The positive response of the public sector to the pandemic is crucial if the long term health of society is to be maintained. This project considers the experiences of newly qualified teachers (NQTs), taking up their first career role having missed a considerable part of their work-based practice prior to employment. This makes them especially vulnerable in a period when schools will have little capacity for early career professional development, with a backdrop of a retention crisis, with many teachers already leaving the profession in their early years. This project will follow NQTs through their first year of teaching to understand the challenges and opportunities they face and how they can be better supported professionally and emotionally to inform practices and policies to ensure sustainability within the sector during and after the pandemic.