There is a perplexing thing that continues to challenge the education sector, where a deluge of new teachers enter the market and yet many principals report difficulties filling vacancies.

This may seem improbable, but there is one likely explanation for it: weak quality signals.

It is possible that the profession may not always be successful at attracting the right calibre. The Initiative’s Teaching Stars report released last year highlighted that entry level standards to Initial Teacher Education providers (ITE) are too low, the selection process of new entrants is variable, and providers do not always fail low-performing trainees. Principals have to rely on weak signals of quality when hiring. In fact, our report pointed to a 2012 survey suggesting that just over half of schools were unsatisfied with the quality of the graduates they had employed.

On one hand, such poor signalling may diminish the status of the profession such that high calibre people thinking about a teaching career may consider other options because they cannot distinguish themselves in the market.

On the other hand, low entry thresholds and poor talent differentiation may incentivise those ill-suited to teaching to enter the profession because they may view it as an easy option. It is also probable that those who may not be effective as teachers may be less able to assess their effectiveness.

If high calibre students are discouraged to enter the profession, many schools miss out on top talent.

In our report, we recommended that if the overall quality of teachers is to be improved, ITE standards must be lifted. One way this could be achieved is if schools took to solving the problem themselves. Schools could use a rating mechanism with reference to their experience with individual training providers and share this information.

The upside of this would be a positive feedback loop. Would-be teachers who value quality would seek out highly rated training providers as a means of differentiating themselves. ITEs seeking more students would be incentivised to improve their curriculum and the quality of their graduates.

And schools would get greater access to a pool of skilled teachers.

The appeal of this solution is that it does not require large-scale funding or changes to existing education policy. By thinking outside the box, and using resources already at hand, principals have the ability to solve their own talent problems, and improve the education ecosystem in the process.