Teaching boost for UK graduates - graduate jobs

Graduates considering entering teaching have been given an added incentive with the announcement that the best teachers will get an extra £10,000 for working at the worst performing schools.

The "golden handcuffs" payments will boost graduate careers, as well as forming a key plank of measures to improve social mobility that are due to be unveiled by Gordon Brown.

If the problem is to be addressed and society made fairer, ministers believe that enhancing GCSE results for children from poorer families is crucial.

The deal will allow headteachers at the toughest secondary schools to offer recruits £10,000 payments at the end of three years' teaching, and will come into effect from September.

The decision as to which recruits are offered the incentive to say is at the heads' discretion, but it is expected to be graduates who perform best at training colleges. Some 6,000 new appointments in England are due to be covered by the scheme.

The average teacher's salary has risen from around £21,500 to more than £34,000 since Labour came to power.