Attracting the bright and committed into teaching: political rhetoric or practical reality?

This article reports on a university developed board endorsed course (UDBEC), which allows higher school certificate (HSC) students to undertake two units of an undergraduate teaching degree as part of their final year of schooling. The course, Springboard into teaching, is a collaborative initiative of the School of Education at Southern Cross University (SCU) and the Catholic education office (CEO) in Lismore, New South Wales (NSW). The course aimed to attract students to the teaching profession, and targeted motivated and high achieving students with an interest in studying teaching at the local university. This article describes Springboard into teaching, and summarises the evaluation of the course. The evaluation process included a survey of the course participants. All respondents indicated that the course had confirmed their interests in pursuing a teaching career.