Soldiers will be encouraged to become schoolteachers under a new scheme that could allow them to begin training without the normal qualifications.

Plans for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) project have emerged after the Government was urged to copy the US scheme, Troops to Teachers, which helps 1,500 service leaders to retrain each year to work in American inner city schools.

Of the 25,000 people who leave the three armed services in Britain each year – including 7,000 officers and senior NCOs – only around 60 become teachers.

Peter Cross, who served with the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers in the first Gulf war and the Falklands war, and is chief executive of the charity Skill Force said: “Many of them become lorry drivers or security guards when they have so much more they could offer to schools. That is a great sadness.”

The MOD already provides service leaders with a resettlement pack that includes advice on teaching careers.

The idea of postgraduate training is off-putting for many soldiers who do not hold first degrees, says Cross. This is likely to be overcome by a new MOD initiative to encourage former soldiers without formal qualifications to train as teachers. The scheme also involves the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, and the Department for Children, Schools and Families and is at an early stage.

“I think it is easier for kids to respect a 40-year-old sergeant major than someone who is about their age and straight out of teacher training college,” Mr Cross said.

To find out more visit www.skillforce.org