C&EN: "Is Europe running out of chemistry teachers?"

Via Chemical and Engineering News, this surprising article (article by Vanessa Zainzinger): 

...In the 2023–24 school year, schools in England were able to recruit only 65% of the teaching staff they needed for chemistry, according to NFER research based on UK Department for Education data. That’s a lot better than staff recruitment for physics, which reached only 17% of its target, but worse than biology—an outlier among science subjects—for which schools recruited 93% of the teachers needed.

Young chemists have many reasons to avoid a teaching career. The most obvious one, Worth says, is that chemistry graduates can earn more money in the chemical industry. On average in the UK, entry-​level chemistry teaching positions start at £32,500 ($42,000) per year. That matches the average starting salary in the chemical industry, but a gap between career paths forms after a few years.

“The starting salary might be relatively attractive, but teachers reach the top of the scale after about 5 years,” says Andy Harvey, national officer for education at the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), a union that represents educators in Scotland. Young teachers soon find themselves without opportunities for promotion, Harvey says. “The thing with chemistry teachers is, they do have marketable skills. They can get better pay elsewhere.”

Unions like the EIS are unimpressed by some widely publicized UK government recruitment schemes, such as grants of up to £28,000 ($36,000) for those enrolling in chemistry teacher training courses and an extensive “Get into Teaching” media campaign. These efforts might lure people to the classroom, but they won’t make them stay, Harvey says. Retention rates are terrible. EIS’s most recent school survey found that 40% of chemistry teachers working in Scotland are considering leaving the profession within the next 5 years.

I guess I don't think about teacher numbers in the UK or Europe (in chemistry or otherwise), but I didn't know the situation wasn't particularly great. It doesn't sound like things are much better in Germany, either. Read the whole thing.