NINE schools in Salisbury and south Wiltshire are joining together to set up their own teacher training programme.

The initiative - aimed at improving recruitment across the area - will see leading teachers at the schools come together to interview and recruit people interested in becoming future teachers.

The trainees will spend a year training in at least one of these schools with time also spent studying at the University of Southampton.

The schools are Bishop's Wordsworth School (BWS), South Wilts Grammar School, Stonehenge School, Avon Valley College, Trafalgar School, Pewsey Vale, St Joseph's, St Edmund's and Wyvern College.

The new University Technical College in Salisbury, which opens this September, may also join the group next year.

BWS assistant headteacher Jerry Rogers said: "It's becoming increasingly difficult to attract new entrants to teaching across the country and we felt here in Salisbury that we needed to do something about that and improve our potential for recruitment.

"Recent Government policy has been to encourage schools to develop their own teacher training through Schools Direct but we are intending to do it in a slightly different way because we have linked up with the University of Southampton.

"The university will provide training and support for all the trainees who will spend some of the year training on the university’s campus and the bulk of the year on teaching practice at one of the Salisbury schools.

"This is a really good way of working together - there is no one school that is dominating it as happens in some Schools Direct partnerships - we are all equal members."

From this September onwards, the group will be advertising trainee posts for people to take up in September 2016.

"We are applying to the Department for Education for around 36 places but will find out the exact number later this summer," Mr Rogers said.

"We have already had three student teachers that have successfully trained in a pilot scheme that ran this year and now we are attempting to expand the partnership with the aim of making Salisbury a major hub for teacher training in the South West.

"As a group, it is our hope that once trainees have had an opportunity to experience the great schools and wonderful living environment in Salisbury, they will be tempted to stay and take up teaching posts in the area.

"This in turn will benefit the local community by providing a stream of highly skilled and enthusiastic entrants to the teaching profession in our schools."

Those interested in applying for the programme, called the Southampton University Partnership Alliance (SUPA) Salisbury, can contact the schools directly for more information before applying via the UCAS website from October onwards.