What does it do? Teach First trains new graduates to work in some of London’s most demanding secondary schools before helping them into a leadership role in other career areas.

How many places are there? The scheme took around 250 graduates in 2005 from all degree disciplines and career interests.

Where are the graduate jobs? London

What are they paying in 2005? £17,500 in the first year and up to £22,000 in the second, depending on promotion.

What’s the competition like? More than 1,000 students applied for the 200 places available in 2004.

How has Teach First done in the Top 100?
2000: No entry
2001: No entry
2002: No entry
2003: 63
2004: 41

WHEN celebrities gathered for a star-studded ceremony in the West End last week, you could have been forgiven for thinking it was a film premiere or a television industry bash, Martin Birchall writes.

It was, in fact, The Teaching Awards, now in their sixth year and widely thought of as the Oscars of the profession. Award ceremonies are nothing new — virtually every industry or business sector in the UK has an annual gathering to celebrate its achievements — but few merit prime-time coverage on BBC Two.

These high-profile awards are just one sign of the improving status of the teaching profession. In the graduate market, an ambitious new initiative called Teach First has already recruited more than 400 university-leavers to teach in schools across London, none of whom had previously considered teaching as a career.

The scheme aims to encourage new graduates to work as teachers before they pursue careers in other areas. The programme is unlike any other graduate scheme in the UK and is aimed very deliberately at high achievers from the country’s leading universities.

The two-year experience begins straight after graduation with a period of school observation and an intensive summer of teacher training. This leads directly into a placement at one of London’s more “challenging” secondary schools in September. Teach First graduates are initially classed as unqualified teachers but the aim is to achieve “qualified to teach” status by the end of the first year. During the second summer, participants join the prestigious Foundations of Leadership course, held at the Tanaka Business School at Imperial College, London. They also have the opportunity for internships with one of more than 80 graduate employers who support the scheme, before returning to their school for a second year of teaching.

With this unique combination of front-line classroom experience and cutting-edge management training, it’s hard to think of a more positive start to a graduate career.

Martin Birchall is editor of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers

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