Just wondering, if the shortage list is being cut due to economy, etc etc, why are teachers being cut (except science and maths) but "skilled ballet dancers" still on the list?! I know this is really a rhetorical question, but how can ballet dancers be in shortage before teachers. No offence, I love ballet and stuff, but how does this make any sense??!!
Looking at the Home Office website, the report regarding changes to the list states that the shortage occupations on it are included despite the economic slowdown and assume a stable labour market.
So, I would imagine that if teachers are being cut it's more likely to be because there are now enough UK/EU citizens training and getting jobs in the other subject areas so they have been taken off the list. The main shortage is now in Science and Maths and so the list has been changed accordingly.
Recently the amount of bursary given to UK/EU students undertaking teacher training in certain subjects has been lowered, meaning that the demand for those teachers has dropped - it's not just on the skills shortages list for foreign workers... British teachers/trainee teachers are affected by it too. A UK student training as a Primary School teacher will only receive a £4,000 bursary, whereas a Science/Maths trainee will receive a £9,000 bursary - because Primary School teachers are no longer in particularly in demand and science teachers are desperately needed. A friend of mine recently qualified as an English teacher - she applied for 60 teaching jobs before she got offered one!
I can imagine that there are many more people undertaking teacher training courses now in the UK than there are ballet dancers (apparently in 2005/2006, there were 58,000 UK graduates applying for teacher training courses!), so dancers are still very much in demand. I studied ballet for 17 years and still wasn't good enough to become a professional, so I gave up, got two degrees and now I'm considering doing teacher training next year to become a high school Physics teacher!
