Perth and Kinross Council are trying to woo employees into embracing a career change to combat teaching shortages.
Plagued by a teacher shortfall, the council is seeking to train non-teaching employees to work in the classroom.
They are offering council staff who are qualified to degree level the chance to retrain as teachers, while still working in their current council posts.
The scheme which allows participants to gain a postgraduate diploma in education in 18 months is being run in conjunction with Dundee University.
At a lifelong learning committee meeting, executive director of education and children’s services John Fyffe said: “We have negotiated with Dundee University an 18-month postgraduate course that would start at Christmas/January and run through to the summer of the following year. That means they would come out at the same time as the
probationers elsewhere.”
Perth and Kinross Council has vacancies for 27 teaching posts, including 11 primary, 11 secondary positions and five primary headteacher jobs.
Mr Fyffe previously revealed Perth and Kinross Council was able to fulfil only half the supply cover requests made by its schools over the past 12 months.
He said he had considered setting up a permanent supply pool teachers employed full-time to provide cover and also looked into providing cars to help supply staff reach rural schools.
Both schemes failed because there were not enough teachers seeking work.
The council hopes that by training people who already have property,
family ties or social networks in the area, they will be able to “home-grow” at least some of the staff their schools require.
“The advantage of doing that is that we’re investing in our own staff, as we are facing financial challenges going forward,” Mr Fyffe stated.
“We are trying a whole range of creative ways to try and fill that gap.”
Staff such as librarians, pupil support assistants, active schools coordinators and HR personnel could retrain.
A council spokesperson said: “At the moment, we are gauging the level of interest and staff who wish to find out more are being invited to an information session where they can get more detail before they make any decisions.”