The number of people applying for part-time teacher training courses has gone up 20% this academic year, according to new figures from the Dutch college association Verenigingen Hogescholen.

The increase, the organisation said, is due mainly to people deciding to switch careers and become teachers. This year, 2,744 people have signed up for part-time courses, compared with 2,266 in 2019.

‘We need thousands more teachers and we have worked hard in the past year to make teacher training more flexible, so people can both study and work,’ the organisation’s chairman Maurice Limmen told the Telegraaf.

The number of new students taking full-time teacher training courses is up 13%.