How to become a teacher

Getting a teaching qualification

To teach in state schools in England, you need qualified teacher status (QTS).

Many teacher training programmes also give you a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE).

Getting a PGCE:

•    gives you a better understanding of education practice and theory
•    means you can teach in other countries

If you train to teach with us, you’ll get both QTS and a PGCE.

Entry requirements

To train to teach, you must have at least:

•    grade C/4 or equivalent in GCSE maths 
•    grade C/4 or equivalent in English language
•    for primary teaching, grade C/4 in one GCSE science subject as well

To train with us, you need an undergraduate degree too. Your degree doesn’t always have to be in the subject you want to teach – relevant A-levels may be suitable.

How long it takes

Teacher training programmes vary in length.

We offer a two-year programme and a one-year programme.

With both courses, you’ll get your QTS and your PGCE after a year.

For our two-year programme, the second year focuses on leadership development, meeting your peers face to face and building important networks while working full time in a school.

Cost

Some teacher training programmes have tuition fees and some are free.

Programmes with tuition fees

Most teacher training programmes have tuition fees. Currently the fees are around £9,250 a year.

You can apply for a student loan to cover your fees, even if you’ve had one before.

For some subjects, like maths and modern foreign languages, you can apply for a bursary or scholarship which you don’t have to pay back.

Free teacher training programmes

There are also free teacher training programmes where you earn a salary while you train.

These programmes are competitive and normally have more rigorous entry requirements.

We offer a free teacher training programme where you earn a salary, and one with tuition fees where you do not earn a salary.

Salary prospects for teachers

Once you’ve got your QTS, you’ll be a qualified teacher.

Starting salaries for qualified teachers depend on where you’re based. They range from £30,000 (locations outside London) to £36,745 (inner London).

Normally, you’ll move up the pay range each year.

In five years, you could be earning between £41,333 (outside London) and £47,666 (inner London).

As you develop in your role, you can apply to move on to a higher pay scale. This is called the ‘upper pay range’ (UPR). If you’re on the upper pay range, you could earn up to £46,525 (outside London) or £56,959 (inner London).

You can achieve an even higher salary by progressing to a leadership role or becoming a headteacher.

Becoming a headteacher or school leader

If you want a leadership role in a school, our two-year salaried training programme will help you get there more quickly.

Four years into teaching, half the people who've completed the programme are in middle leadership positions.

And our trainees are 12 times more likely to progress to senior leadership roles early in their career than those who train through a higher education institute.

Who trains you

However you train to teach, you’ll spend most of your time in school, either teaching or observing lessons.

All teacher training programmes also have some theoretical learning.

With both our training routes, you get a high-quality initial teacher training curriculum developed by Teach First. We’re the largest initial teacher training provider in the country, with over 20 years’ experience and an outstanding rating from Ofsted.

On both programmes, you’ll have ongoing support from a mentor in your school.

Where can you train?

We have thousands of partner schools across England.

For our salaried training programme, we train teachers to work in the schools that need them the most. So you might need to be flexible about where in the country you teach.

If you feel strongly about staying local, you can consider our unsalaried one-year teacher training programme.

What subject and phase you'll teach

Your teacher training will equip you to teach either:

• early primary (3–7)
• primary (5–11)
• a specific secondary school subject

If you know what subject you want to teach, you’ll need to show sufficient knowledge of the subject. Normally this means having a relevant degree or A-levels. For certain subjects, professional experience will count too.

You can check the specific subject criteria for our teacher training courses.

Why Teach First?

Our teacher training is extremely high quality. Ofsted rated our teacher training programme as outstanding.

And when you train with us, you’re joining a community, working within the classroom and beyond, to bring an end to educational inequality.

We’re a charity that believes education is the most powerful tool to help a child fulfil their potential.

Since 2003, we’ve improved the life chances and choices of over two million pupils and trained over 16,000 teachers.

Our trainees make lasting change in their schools. Departments with Teach First trainees get significantly better GCSE results than similar departments or schools without Teach First trainees.

Check out our teacher training options

There are different ways to train to teach.

Which one’s right for you depends on your situation and what matters most to you.

We offer two choices.

• a two-year, salaried and fully funded programme – to do this programme, you’ll teach in the schools that need you the most so you may need to relocate
• a one-year unsalaried programme with tuition fees, called school-centred initial teacher training (SCITT) – if you do this course, you can choose where in the country you train

Choose a teacher training programme