Some Australian schools have started using a new tertiary training model that allows prospective teachers to skip attending a university, instead giving them "hands-on" in-classroom experience as paid employees.

Key points: Program employs teaching students as classroom assistants and a private provider delivers lectures at school, completely bypassing universities

Program employs teaching students as classroom assistants and a private provider delivers lectures at school, completely bypassing universities Universities warns similar model in UK was not successful and said it is not an efficient program

Universities warns similar model in UK was not successful and said it is not an efficient program System aims to have better retention than other alternative teaching program Teach for Australia

Known as the "clinical teaching" model, the tertiary program sees schools employ students as paid assistant teachers for 1-2 days a week throughout the duration of their four-year course.

Lectures are conducted on-site at the school once a week, meaning the students bypass a university campus entirely.

The assistant teachers are mentored by senior practitioners and are paid an initial pro-rata salary of $61,375, which increases as they progress in competency throughout their degree.

In an Australian first, the clinical teaching method has been rolled out with 19 teaching students in a cluster of six schools in the Hunter region of NSW, in conjunction with private Christian tertiary provider Alphacrucis College.

Alphacrucis is actively lobbying for the model to become the training program for up to one-third of all Australian graduate teachers.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 1 minute 23 seconds 1 m 23 s Associate Dean of Alphacrucis College says teaching program aims to address the problem of classroom readiness.

But universities are urging caution, noting a similar model of training has not been successful in England.

Undergraduates who train in the clinical teaching model via Alphacrucis College are not eligible for Commonwealth support, so the degree costs are higher than an equivalent course at a mainstream university.

The total cost for the Alphacrucis qualification is around $60,000, with each subject costing $1,900.

In comparison, university teaching degrees charge those eligible for Commonwealth support around $900 per subject.

Hannah King (centre) loves working as a paid teaching assistant in Newcastle. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito )

Hannah King is a primary school teaching assistant at one of the participating primary schools in Newcastle.

"On a weekly basis, we have this opportunity to affirm that we want to be teachers," she said.

"So I feel already, just after a year of doing the program, a real sense of commitment to this profession.

"We're also supported financially by the school as employees, which is really amazing as students who also have a full-time study load."

The cohort of 19 students also move around between the six schools and complete practical placements outside the program, in line with standard teaching degrees.

Ms King will finish her course as a qualified teacher. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito )

Austin Ward is studying to become a high school teacher under the clinical teaching model at St Philip's Christian College in Newcastle.

"The course is hands on all the time, there's no wait before we jump in the classroom," he said.

"Just seeing how our study relates to what we're doing is something that really attracted me."

Mr Ward has grown up on the north coast region of NSW and hopes to gain permanent employment in one of the participating schools once he graduates.

Program not efficient on national scale: university council

In England, the government moved several years ago to fund school-centred initial teacher training, with many schools partnering with universities to deliver degrees.

Teaching assistant Austin Ward (right) wants to stay teaching in regional NSW. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito )

Roughly one-third of all teachers are trained under that partnership model.

President of the Australian Council of Deans of Education Tania Aspland said the English model was not widely regarded as a success.

"The UK is still in fact looking to Australia for their graduates because they're seen to be of a better quality," she said.

During initial teacher training provided by universities in Australia, aspiring teachers undergo a limited number of practical placements throughout their course.

Professor Aspland, who is also a professor of teacher education at Australian Catholic University, said she broadly supported schools partnering with tertiary providers to deliver teacher training, but this model would not work on a national scale.

"There are some small colleges who want this to be the model of initial teacher education," she said.

"But this is not affordable or sustainable across the nation."

She also said graduates of a clinical teaching model may lack diversity of experience.

Alphacrucis College associate dean David Hastie said he believed there were "a number of questions around quality and classroom readiness" of university graduate teachers.

"I think universities are trying very hard to do a good job," he said.

"I think it's the model that's problematic, where there's not a great deal of contact between what the students are being trained to do and the training.

"But this model isn't about cutting out the universities, it's about a tertiary-school partnership."

Austin Ward and Hannah King will both never attend a university campus for their teaching degree. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito )

The clinical teaching model differs from the controversial training program known as Teach for Australia (TFA), which employs university graduates from non-teaching backgrounds in disadvantaged schools.

Under TFA, trainee teachers study a post-graduate degree during their two-year school placement.

Retention in regions is key focus of program

A key selling point of the clinical teaching model is the ability to keep students in the regions once they graduate, according to Mr Hastie.

"We call it training on-country for country," he said.

"The best way to train teachers for the bush is to train them from the bush and retain them in the bush."

Alphacrucis College has been spruiking the clinical teaching model to state governments, hoping to expand the scheme.

"I think there's great potential for this model to be rolled out across the country and across different sectors," he said.

Hannah King (centre) will eventually be registered as a primary school teacher. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito )

Last year, the ACT Government announced it was cutting ties with the TFA program, citing concerns over value for money and retention rates.

The ACT Government cited concerns about the low retention of participants in the teaching workforce (around 35 per cent), compared to the investment required to collaborate with the program.

The federal government committed $77 million in funding for TFA in 2009.