A Profession in Limbo: Scotland’s Teacher Employment Crisis and What It Reveals

Finito World

What does it mean to be “qualified” in modern Britain? Increasingly, it seems to mean very little.

In Scotland today, hundreds of highly trained and deeply motivated teachers find themselves trapped in limbo—moving from temporary contract to temporary contract, or exiting the country altogether in search of security. Some are even leaving the profession entirely, or worse, facing devastating psychological consequences in the face of institutional neglect.

This is not a tale of unqualified ambition or unrealistic expectation. These are individuals like Louise Fraser—24, committed, trained, and enthusiastic—who, despite successfully completing the Teacher Induction Scheme, found herself without stable work. Her response? Emigration to Dubai, where her skills were recognised and rewarded. She now faces the strange paradox of longing to return home while fearing her vocation will no longer be viable there.

Fraser is far from alone. Government figures for 2024–25 show that only 25% of newly qualified teachers secured permanent posts after their probation year. In primary education, that figure is closer to 11%. For many, that first year of hope quickly turns into a multi-year purgatory of supply lists, short-term contracts, and crushing disappointment.

This isn’t just about the heartbreak of individual teachers—it’s a systemic failure with serious implications for the future of Scottish education and for the broader employability ecosystem.

How can it be that at the same time as classrooms are overfull, and existing staff are overburdened (working on average “a day and a half unpaid” per week), newly minted teachers are unable to find permanent work? What kind of planning failure produces this contradiction?

The government’s answer is that teachers are now “more expensive to employ” following recent pay rises. But that is hardly an excuse—it’s an admission that the pipeline from qualification to vocation has not been adequately budgeted for. Local authorities, strapped for cash, are reportedly redirecting funds away from staffing targets. Meanwhile, national and local governments are locked in a blame game, and a generation of teachers is caught in the middle.

There is a bitter irony here. At a time when we desperately need teachers—particularly in subjects like maths and physics—we are haemorrhaging talent through simple neglect. We are inviting our best graduates to train, and then offering them no stable future. The message is clear: qualification is no guarantee of employability.

The consequences are severe, not just for teachers, but for students too. A revolving door of supply teachers damages continuity, relationships, and trust. It creates environments where no one feels grounded—neither educators nor pupils. It is hard to build an excellent school culture when the staffroom empties at the end of each term.

From an employability perspective, this crisis is both predictable and solvable. It requires better forecasting of subject-level and regional demand. It demands more flexible pathways to permanence, including options for part-time or multi-school roles. Most of all, it needs clear and honest alignment between government rhetoric and real funding commitments.

Scotland has long prided itself on the quality of its education system. But this pride cannot be sustained while it squanders the potential of those willing to serve in its classrooms.

At Finito, we see education as the cornerstone of long-term employability—both for those who teach and those they teach. It is not enough to offer training; we must offer a future. The teacher crisis in Scotland is a warning to other sectors: qualification without opportunity is a broken promise. Let’s not allow it to become the norm.