Different Qualification Outcomes
Qualified Teacher Status (QTS)
This is a professional qualification (just like being a chartered accountant or surveyor) awarded by the Teaching Regulation Agency. QTS is the the only qualification that you need to be able to teach at a school in England and almost by definition all teacher training programmes include QTS.
To get QTS your teaching is judged against The Teachers' Standards. The Teachers' Standards are set out on a single page, easy to Google and worth looking at before interview!
Professional qualifications are not generally recognised abroad because they properly relate to the standards set by the professional body in a particular country.
Post Graduate Certificate of Education with Masters level credits PGCE(M)
This is an additional academic qualification which is also included in most of our courses. This requires time studying outside the classroom but on courses that include the PGCE, you still get at least 24 weeks in at least two schools to give you practical classroom experience. The PGCE(M) component of our programmes is awarded to you by the university associated with our course. You do not need PGCE to teach in England, but academic qualifications are commonly recognised in other countries.
When a course includes a PGCE, effectively the professional skills that you need for QTS are taught in an academic manner. You may learn about different research relating to a topic such as behaviour management, you would be encouraged to reflect on these and then also to put them into practice in a classroom setting.
All of our unsalaried courses include the PGCE.
Why are a few of our courses QTS only?
A few of our secondary courses are QTS only, when a salary is being offered. This is because the schools offering these programmes want you to be training in a classroom for as much time as possible across the year. They need you to have QTS, and don't want to be paying you a salary while you are away from school at the university studying for a qualification that they don't need you to have and that they would be paying for. They value the direct practical experience you would get in a classroom and prefer you to be in school for as much time as possible.
Some people who have multiple degrees already favour QTS only courses because they don't want to spend more time in a university and they want to focus on the practical side of teaching.
Some people who have worked for sometime already in a school as a teaching assistant, or as a teacher in another country, also favour QTS only courses.
What is a Postgraduate Teaching Apprenticeship PGTA
We offer apprenticeships for both primary and secondary teacher training. It is a form of salaried course with 20% off the job training. You cannot teach with PGTA on its own. All teaching apprenticeship programmes therefore additionally include either QTS only or PGCE(M)QTS.
In addition to meeting the requirements for those qualifications, you must also be assessed for the apprenticeship qualification (PGTA), normally in term 4.
