Be The Inspiration: Tackling the Music Teacher Recruitment and Retention Crisis
5th October 2026
Today on World Teachers’ Day, we’re launching our latest campaign: ‘Be The Inspiration’.
Music educators have a vital role in inspiring the next generation of Musicians. Whether that’s Classroom Teachers, Instrumental & Vocal Teachers, Workshop Leaders, Lecturers, Community Musicians, or Early Years Practitioners. Teaching music takes place in many forms and settings, but all have an important role to play in supporting and inspiring musical learning in young people. However, across the music education sector, recruiting and retaining music educators is becoming increasingly challenging.
Through this campaign, we want to support our membership with the recruitment and retention of music educators, while raising awareness that teaching music can be a viable and rewarding career pathway.
Understanding the recruitment challenge
To better understand the challenges facing the sector, we surveyed our audience of Music Hubs and Services across England and Wales. We heard from 105 respondents, with 93% acknowledging issues in recruitment of instrumental and vocal teachers in the sector, and 70% considering it a crisis.
We also asked respondents what they believe is driving the recruitment crisis. The most commonly identified issue was that candidates were unsuitable due to a lack of educational experience. Respondents also told us that musical teaching experience was the most valued skill in selecting candidates.
Our survey also highlighted other factors contributing to the recruitment challenge, including:
- Negative perceptions of music teaching as a career
- Limited training and development opportunities
- Unstable sector funding and salary expectations
The impact of the recruitment crisis
The challenges around recruitment and retention affect organisations and individuals, whilst also impacting music education provision more broadly. Music Hubs and Services told us that the recruitment crisis leads to:
- Increased pressure on management teams
- Demand exceeding capacity
- Increased workloads for teachers
- Reduced quality of provision
The increased pressure and workload of the role may lead to higher staff turnover, and ultimately, when there aren’t enough teachers to meet demand, it can become harder for young people to access the high-quality music education they deserve.
Be The Inspiration
This is why we’re launching ‘Be The Inspiration’. Teaching music is about inspiring young people, building confidence, and developing creativity. There is a huge opportunity for our sector to strengthen pathways into the profession, change perceptions, and increase support for music educators.
This campaign will begin to address these issues within the music education sector and we’ll look at how can we encourage more musicians to consider teaching as a career pathway, while ensuring current and future educators have access to the training, support, and experience they need to succeed.
We want to shine a light on the opportunities that a career in music teaching can offer, while supporting our members to attract, recruit and retain talented music educators.
For further news updates from across the Music Education sector, visit our News page
