Planit : Career Areas : Teaching and Classroom Support

Do you want a rewarding and stimulating job where no two days are the same? Or would you like to see personal development in people and make a difference to their lives? If so, then you should definitely consider teaching or classroom support as a career.

There’s no doubt that teaching can be an exhausting vocation at times. But, even if your students don’t seem to want to learn, you can rest assured that your enthusiasm for a subject can sow the seeds which can grow throughout a student’s life!

The latest figures from 2025 report that there were 51,677 school based teachers in Scotland, compared to 51,594 in 2024. Around 95% of Scottish schools are state schools, run by the 32 Scottish local authorities. ¹

What areas can I work in?

There are many areas that you can work in the education sector: primary school teaching, secondary school teaching, learning support teaching and classroom support, private tutoring or teaching, and college or university lecturing.

To see the routes to getting into each of these sectors, take a look at our Career Pathway.

What kind of companies can I work for?

Possible employers include:

local authority-run pre-schools, primary and secondary schools
independent schools or academies
commercial language schools
young offenders' institutions
charities
colleges and universities.

What’s the job market like?

According to the Scottish government, in 2025 there were 83 more teachers working in Scottish schools compared to 2024. The pupil to teacher ratio (PTR) in schools decreased to 13.2% compared to 13.3% in 2024. ¹

Demand continues for some subjects including STEM subjects and modern languages. For example the target intake for maths students in 2025 was 250 but only 73 was achieved. The target for Chemistry students was 159 but only 51 was achieved. ²

In Scotland’s colleges, employment figures have decreased: as of 1st October 2025 there were 12,575 staff working in colleges (49% teaching staff and 51% support staff), 69% of whom worked full time. ³

In Scottish universities, the total number of academic staff for the 2024/25 session was 27,855, an increase of 25 from the previous year. ⁴

There is work for teachers of English as a Foreign Language in Scotland, as well as elsewhere in the UK and abroad, as more people want to learn to speak English.

Facts and figures

In Scotland in 2025 there were:

1,969 publicly funded primary schools and 359 publicly funded secondary schools ¹
107 Additional Support for Learning (ASL) schools for children who need extra learning or behavioural support ¹
2,558 centres providing funded early learning and childcare ¹
24,415 primary teachers, 25,067 secondary teachers, and 2,195 teaching in Additional Support for Learning (ASL) schools ¹
696 teachers working in early learning and childcare centres ¹
in the primary sector, 89% of teachers were female. ¹

For Scottish FE institutions in 2023/24:

there were 25 colleges across 14 regions in Scotland with around 209,285 students ³
8,675 students with an HNC/D progressed onto university (54% onto year 2 or 3) ³
19% of 18-19 year-olds attended full time ³
colleges delivered around 12% of all higher education in Scotland. ³

At Scottish HE institutions in 2024/25:

the top three areas of study in Scotland, based on enrolment numbers were: subjects allied to medicine (20,425); business and management (17,065); and social sciences (13,370) ⁵
the three institutions with the highest number of Scottish students enrolling for a first degree were: the University of Edinburgh (25,425); the University of Glasgow (21,745); and Glasgow Caledonian University (15,015). ⁶