Eligibility criteria
To teach in primary, secondary, and special schools in England, you must have Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), which you can obtain through teacher training.
This page outlines the requirements you will need to take up a place on the National Insitute of Teaching (NIoT) Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Programme.
Bachelor’s Degree
To join our ITT programme to teach in primary and secondary schools in England, you’ll need:
- A UK bachelor’s degree classified at 2.2 or higher (3rd class degree sometimes accepted on a case-by-case basis), or a recognised equivalent qualification (with ENIC proof of equivalence*).
You must be able to produce original certificates or documentation to support the qualifications above.
GCSEs
To train to teach, you must have at least:
- Grade C/4 or equivalent in GCSE English and Mathematics or a recognised equivalent qualification (ENIC proof of equivalence*).
- For primary teaching, you’ll also need a grade C/4 in one GCSE science subject or a recognised equivalent qualification (with ENIC proof of equivalence*).
You must be able to produce original certificates or documentation to support the qualifications above.
Degree Subject and A-Levels
The A-levels and degree subject requirements depend on whether you want to teach primary or a secondary subject.
You can have a degree in any subject to teach at the primary or secondary level. However, for secondary education, the NIoT requires you to have a strong understanding of the subject you intend to teach.
This can be demonstrated through:
- A degree in the subject
- An A-level in the subject at grade B or above
- A degree related to the subject (e.g. an engineering degree if you want to teach physics)
- An unrelated degree coupled with a relevant postgraduate qualification or professional experience
Additionally, you can train to teach primary education with a specialist subject, such as primary with maths, to deepen your expertise in that area. You can also train to teach two subjects at the secondary level, such as maths with physics. The second subject would be supplementary, but it offers an opportunity to broaden your teaching skills.
Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) Course
If you are concerned that you may need to enhance your knowledge before you start your training, you may be recommended to take a Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) course. These are available in 5 subjects: chemistry, computing, languages, mathematics, and physics. You can do a SKE course before or sometimes during your teacher training to improve your subject knowledge. We may make this a requirement of accepting you on the course if:
- You finished your degree more than five years ago.
- Your degree is in a different but related field to the subject you want to teach but is not the exact subject or course.
- You have an A level in the subject you want to teach, but not a degree.
- Your degree is in a different field, but you have relevant work experience.
- You studied languages at university, but you need to improve your knowledge in either your main language, your second language, or both to be able to teach them well in schools.
Find out more about subject knowledge enhancement courses.
Overseas Qualifications
If you are applying from overseas, we will check your qualifications against the regulations that the government sets for entry into the profession. Your degree will have to be equivalent to a UK bachelor's degree and your high school diploma/qualifications equivalent to GCSEs and A Levels. Send all your certificates together (this will be at your own cost.)
*We require an ENIC statement of comparability for all overseas qualifications. You can get a statement of comparability from the UK European Network of Information Centres (UK ENIC)(opens in new window) to show the standard of your qualifications.
We will also need to ascertain which is the equivalent class awarded for a degree to ensure a bursary payment is applicable.
If we cannot ascertain if your qualifications are equivalent to UK qualifications, you may need to take an equivalency test, and your offer will be conditional until these checks are completed. You can do this on equivalency.co.uk where you can book to take an equivalency test (this will be at your own cost).
Trainees must have a good standard of English. If you have an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) with overall grade of 6.5, and a minimum of 6.0 in each of the subtests, we class this as equivalent to GCSE English language. It must have been taken within the last two years.
Guidance on teaching in England if you qualified outside the UK is now available on the Get into Teaching website.
Right to Work in the UK
You must have the right to work full-time in the UK for the entire duration of the programme. The NIoT cannot sponsor visas, so you will need to secure one separately by April of the year you are due to start training with us.
You can check if you need a UK visa and contact UK Visas and Immigration for help.
Irish citizens do not need a visa to work or live in the UK.
Further information
If you have any questions about your eligibility, please contact us on ITT@niot.org.uk. You can also read more about eligibility on the Get Into Teaching website.