The School Standards Minister, Estelle Morris, said that training for serving headteachers and teachers applying for headships was an important element in the government's efforts to raise standards in schools.

"We need to develop strong leaders - in a rapidly changing world neither schools nor their heads can afford to stand still," said the minister.

Estelle Morris wants a national system for training headteachers

There will be �17m in support for the National Professional Qualification for Headship which prepares teachers wanting to become heads and �8m for training schemes for current headteachers.

This follows the announcement in October of plans to set up a National College for School Leadership, which will aim to revitalise headteachers and ensure that their skills are up to date.

The lack of applications for the headteachers' qualification has recently been a target for the Conservatives and the government has now moved to bolster its training initiative.

The Schools Minister linked the latest announcements on training to this month's Green Paper on the reform of the teaching profession, which emphasised the importance of leadership from headteachers.