Skills needed to be a teacher

Teaching is a job that requires enthusiasm, subject passion, and a range of skills. Some skills you’ll learn through your teacher training and develop throughout your career. Other skills may be more natural or abilities you’ve developed through your life experience and previous jobs.

The skills needed to be a teacher will also vary by teaching role. For example, the skills needed for teaching secondary differ to the required skills to be a primary teacher.

There’s no one 'type' of teacher that works, and so you're able to make the job your own.

Subject knowledge

One of the most important skills for teaching is enthusiasm and knowledge of the subject you want to teach. This allows you to answer questions your pupils have and be creative in how you help them learn.

You can build your subject knowledge in several ways. For example, through a degree in a subject, your teacher training, or conversations with your colleagues and pupils. If you do postgraduate teacher training, your provider may decide that you'd benefit from a subject knowledge enhancement course.

Being passionate about building and sharing subject knowledge will help you inspire your pupils to learn and fulfil their potential.

Ensure you have a genuine passion for education and a commitment to helping students succeed. Teaching requires dedication and enthusiasm, as you'll be influencing young lives and their futures.

Teaching methods and techniques

In your teacher training, you’ll learn all the various ways you can teach. This is also known as pedagogy. You’ll be equipped with a toolkit to put into practice during your teacher training placements and throughout your career.

Teacher training will allow you to experiment with the best tone of voice for your own teaching style. Observe as many teachers as you can and cherry-pick the techniques and skills that they use for your own classroom. I found that having a quieter voice required pupils to listen more actively. It was an excellent way to manage behaviour!

Soft skills

As teaching is a very people-focused career, your soft skills are important. These are natural attributes you develop through your life experience and previous jobs.

Soft skills that are useful as a teacher include:

• adaptability
• communication
• creativity
• empathy
• organisation
• patience
• problem solving
• resilience
• teamwork

These skills will help you build relationships with your pupils, colleagues, and parents. They’ll also help you manage your workload and adapt to the changing needs of your pupils and school.

Some skills you need to be an amazing teacher can't be taught - kindness, caring, empathy and a passion to help others. If this sounds like you then the job satisfaction is unlike anything you will have experienced elsewhere.

Get free one-to-one support

An adviser with years of teaching experience can answer any questions you have about teaching and help you decide if it is the career for you. Chat by phone, text or email, as little or as often as you need.

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