In Scotland, Early Career Teachers (ECTs) are those who have completed their probation either through the Teacher Induction Scheme or Flexible Route and are in the first four years of their career.

We recognise that every teacher brings different experiences with them and will have a unique journey through their career. Therefore Stepping Stones offers a range of opportunities for you to explore and engage with depending on your professional learning needs.

If you are reading this and think it would support an early career teacher please signpost this page to them thank you.

Now and next

These pages draw together the different elements of the Stepping Stones offer for Early Career Teachers. As an early career teacher you no longer need to register for Stepping Stones with Education Scotland.

We continue to work with colleagues from across Education Scotland to share with you any professional learning offers that they have that specifically target early career teachers.  You will find these on the Professional Learning section of this page. We also have new open access professional learning resources for 2024 as well as our suite of self-directed Professional Learning Activities. More information about these and how to access them is also in the Professional Learning section.

GTC Scotland in partnership with Columba 1400 are exploring how the national Stepping Stones initiative is delivered at a local level through the launch of the next wave of the Ambassador Community.  Building on the pilot programme this work complements existing local authority support for early career teachers.

To find out more about what is happening in your local authority, look out for local newsletters and bulletins, or contact your local authority probation manager.

Pilot programme - 2022-23

The Stepping Stones pilot programme was developed in partnership with GTC Scotland and Columba 1400.

What we did

In our pilot Stepping Stones year from 2022 to 2023 we:

• signposted early career teachers to relevant professional learning opportunities and networks from Education Scotland colleagues
• created a monthly Wellbeing newsletter that was sent out to those of the mailing list
• worked with eleven local authorities as they developed their early career teacher Ambassador programmes

What we learned

In our pilot Stepping Stones year from 2022 to 2023 we learned:

• the importance and value of having a mentor or supporter has been repeatedly highlighted by early career teachers
• that professional learning needs to be contextual, relevant, and provide local opportunities for engagement
• that opportunities to connect nationally were of lesser importance at this stage than making local connections
• to provide support through continuing practitioner enquiry and guiding participants to relevant research and reading
• that Stepping Stones and early career teacher programmes within local authorities support those on supply or temporary contracts, who otherwise would feel lost in the process