Case Study

Teaching Assistant training makes the grade

21 Mar 2025

A pilot programme led by Ingeus to train much-in-demand Teaching Assistants (TAs) for schools across Greater Manchester has scored top marks from the 16 budding TAs who recently completed the course in Oldham. The unemployed participants now hope to move into work, helping to tackle the severe shortage of TAs across the region.

Ingeus charted TAs to be among the top five vacancies across all 10 Greater Manchester boroughs. To address this labour market shortage, Ingeus took inspiration from its sister company in Canada and contacted local employer, Chalk Education, to co-design a training programme tailored to aspiring TA’s.

“We wanted to replicate the idea of working with employers in areas of high demand for labour,” explains Jonathan Rooke, Head of Employer Services at Ingeus. “Bringing together partners to support people a step or two away from work, we sourced technical training and added wraparound services to help people become more confident and independent. The idea is that employers are actively involved in designing the training and then benefit from the resulting upskilled applicants.”

The Health, Independence and Progression (HIP) scheme saw the participants intersperse their six-week long intensive TA training with enjoyable health and lifestyle-themed days at local partner organisations to help teach skills such as money management, healthy food preparation, DIY, and mindfulness.

Natasha from Bury is one of the scheme’s successful participants. Unemployed for three years, she is now working part time via Chalk at a specialist school in Oldham.
“I’d considered TA training before but didn’t have the confidence before HIP,” she says. “It got me into a good routine, meeting people – I couldn’t have done the training without the HIP days. I feel good and am looking forward to the future.”

Natasha and her fellow TA graduates received Level 2 Support Work in Schools accreditation with an optional Level 3 Special Educational Needs qualification. The tailored course content was delivered by Rochdale Training at the Ingeus centre in Oldham. Nathan Finn, Employer Skills Advisor at Rochdale Training says:
“We changed delivery from online to in-person and altered the learning schedule to allow for the weekly HIP days. Courses covered safeguarding, health and safety, classroom management, and TA roles and responsibilities, with functional English and maths. The extra-curricular days were totally unique and are something we’re hoping to build into more of our vocational training.”

Chalk Education, a specialist agency providing staff to schools across Greater Manchester, has previously worked with Ingeus to source applicants. This time, they directly inputted to the course content, presented at information days for interested candidates before the training began and have welcomed the extra support Ingeus provides in making applicants job ready.

“First and foremost, we need people with the right personality and interest in the role,” explains Chalk Education Managing Director, Su Kinney. “I was then very impressed with the level of training they underwent, and the fact that Ingeus supports candidates to get DBS checks, workwear clothing, travel expenses, and so on. As an employer, this initiative has given us fee-free access to a pool of committed applicants, at a time when TAs are in very high demand.”

The programme also had input from Ingeus Youth Voice Ambassadors giving insight into the benefit and drawbacks young people may feel embarking on a TA career. It was backed by Greater Manchester Combined Authority with funding from the Community Investment and Adult Learning Funds.