Discover if a career teaching in a primary or secondary school in England is right for you.
These steps can help you to achieve qualified teacher status (QTS), which you need to teach in many primary and secondary schools in England.
You do not have to follow all of the steps in order and some may take longer than others.
There are more steps to consider if you're a non-UK citizen.
A teacher training adviser can give free practical advice and reassurance about all of these steps and more. Learn more about teacher training advisers.
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Check your qualifications
To train to teach, you’ll need to have GCSEs at grade 4 (C) or above in English and maths (and science if you want to teach primary).
You also need a degree to teach primary and secondary – if you have one or an equivalent qualification, you can do postgraduate teacher training.
If you do not have a degree, you can do undergraduate teacher training to get a degree alongside qualified teacher status (QTS).
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Understand funding
Undergraduate and postgraduate teacher training course fees are around £9,250 per year.
You can apply for tuition fee and maintenance loans, even if you already have a student loan.
If you're interested in teaching certain subjects, you might be able to get up to £29k tax-free to support you while you're training. This money does not have to be paid back.
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Consider getting experience
Experiencing life in a school can help you decide if teaching is right for you and who you want to teach. This is a good way to give you a taste of what the classroom is really like.
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Find a teacher training course
Through teacher training, you can get qualified teacher status (QTS), a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE), or both.
You do not need a PGCE to teach, but you do need QTS to teach in many primary and secondary schools.
You can find postgraduate teacher training courses in England(opens in new window).
Or take a look at undergraduate teacher training courses(opens in new window).
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Apply for teacher training
You can usually start applying for postgraduate training in October and undergraduate training in May, the calendar year before your course starts.
You can apply throughout the year, but some courses do fill up quickly.
Get tips on making a great application including finding the right references and writing a personal statement.
Apply for postgraduate teacher training(opens in new window).
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Start your teacher training
All postgraduate training involves classroom placements in at least 2 schools. Your training will also include some theoretical learning, which might be in a different location to your placements.
Most postgraduate courses start in September, with full-time courses taking 9 months and part-time courses taking 18 to 24.
Undergraduate courses usually take 4 years.
Find out more about what postgraduate teacher training is like.
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Apply for a teaching role
Some teacher training providers recommend you start thinking about job applications quite early in your teacher training year.
Schools start to advertise their vacancies from January.
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Start your career
Congratulations – you're a qualified teacher!
Now that you’ve started your first teaching job, you’ll be an early career teacher (ECT) – this used to be called newly qualified teacher (NQT).
For your first 2 years as an early career teacher, you’ll receive a package of support to help you find your feet.
Find out more about support for early career teachers (ECT).
