University of Otago College of Education dean Prof Vivienne Anderson said the university was developing a proposal for a programme that would enable teachers in training in Otago to access Schools Online Training Programme (SOTP) funding.
The funding allowed for teacher trainees to be hosted in schools three to four days a week while studying remotely towards their teaching qualification.
At present 1200 SOTP places were available for aspiring teachers.
Until now the funding had only been used by a group of schools in Auckland and was not yet available to southern centres.
Prof Anderson said the teachers college would introduce an online graduate diploma in teaching endorsing primary and secondary education to be offered next year that would qualify for the funding.
Traditional study was very hard for people who wanted to train to be teachers but could not afford it due to the cost of living, she said.
However, the on-site programmes were not a replacement for "traditional" training because they might not be a fit for all students or schools.
Both rural and urban schools were experiencing teacher shortages and specifically in some curriculum areas.
A Ministry of Education forecast from last month predicted there would be a short fall of about 90 secondary teachers by 2027 in Otago in the most likely scenario.
This year there was a shortfall of about 30 primary teachers in Otago and it was set to reduce by 2027 to just 10.
Southland was also projected to be short by 20 secondary teachers but at a surplus of 20 teachers in 2027.
Otago Boys’ High School rector Richard Hall told the Otago Daily Times in the past it was "deeply concerning to have Otago ... struggling to have teachers".
Mr Hall said that introducing the "apprenticeship model" would quicken the supply chain for teachers.
The move away from the traditional university model would give more people the opportunity to learn to be teachers.
Otago Secondary Principals Association chairwoman Jackie Barron said to combat the teachers shortage "we’re going to have to look at everything".
There were no quick solutions and it was going to take a while to build the teaching workforce.
"We’re going to have to take best practice from other schools, learn from other regions that have had similar issues and be really innovative in the way we approach it to make sure that we can cover the curriculum areas," she said.
