When completing your application, you'll need the consent of your school and a suitable mentor. The University will need to approve the school and designated mentor.
Successful admission will be determined by your potential to teach assessed using both your application and, if successful at application stage, an interview process.
To be accepted onto the course, you'll need:
Education requirements
- A bachelor’s degree or equivalent from a UK or non-UK university. This doesn't have to be in a curriculum subject. You must check the individual teacher registration requirements for the country where you wish to teach. The University uses ENIC(opens in new tab) to assess the level of your qualifications if from a non-UK university.
- To have achieved a standard equivalent to grade 4 in GCSE mathematics
- To have achieved a standard equivalent to grade 4 in a GCSE science subject (biology, chemistry, or physics) if teaching children aged 5 to 11 (equivalent to an English primary school)
- Any previous school experience isn't a requirement for successful admission to the course. Successful admission will be determined by your potential to teach assessed using both your application and, if successful at application stage, an interview process. Please note, for those not currently working as an employed teacher, you'll be responsible for arranging your own placement, both the main teaching experience blocks, and the second school experience.
- For those without a first degree studied in the medium of English, Academic in person IELTS is required, achieved within the last two years. (A minimum Academic IELTS band score of 6.5, with 6.5 in writing, and no less than 6 in Reading and Speaking and Listening).
You'll also need to submit a strong personal statement as part of your application which will be crucial in how your application is assessed.
When completing your personal statement, please consider the following areas:
- What made you want to be a teacher?
- What character and personality traits will you bring to the teaching profession?
- What skills and abilities will you bring to the teaching profession?
- What's your own philosophy for teaching and learning?
Essentially, this is a portrait of you as a teacher, a self-reflective statement of your beliefs about the teaching and learning process, and, where appropriate, how you enact or plan to enact these beliefs in the professional school environment.
Your response in the personal statement will be individual to you and reflect and embrace the diversity of your background, the richness of your experiences, and what you'll bring to the teaching profession.
School and teaching requirements
- To be able to satisfy the practicum and mentor requirements, trainees are required to find a placement school (if not already employed as a practising teacher) that'll provide a teaching experience for a total of 120 days. Please note that teaching in Language Centres, Learning Centres, or similar cannot be used to complete this course; teaching must take place in an international school, state school, or similar that follows a recognised curriculum. This course requires teaching in either a primary or secondary school. If you wish to teach in early years (kindergarten), you'll need to apply for the PGCE Early Years Teaching (DL) course.
- It's a requirement of the course that all teaching placement hours use English as the language of instruction to deliver whole-class teaching (not small groups, interventions, or one-to-one support).
- iQTS programmes are required to meet the Department for Education criteria. For applicants to the Primary programme, this means teaching within both Key Stage 1 (5-7 years old) and Key Stage 2 (7-11 years old) during the practicum. Trainees are required to provide evidence of experience teaching all Primary National Curriculum subjects(opens in new tab). For applicants to the Secondary programme, teaching across two consecutive key stages is mandatory during the practicum. These Key Stages include Key Stage 3 (11-14 years old), Key Stage 4 (14-16 years old) or Key Stage 5 (16-19 years old). If an applicant is teaching in just one Key Stage (as an example, post-16 politics), they should, where possible, be given the opportunity to teach a related subject across the full age range (for example, history to younger year groups).
- 10 days are required for the second school experience as part of the mandated 120 days. If trainees are unable to attend a second school in-person, a virtual second school experience is offered by the University.
- Trainees can only be made a conditional offer with a placement and mentor in place and you'll need to provide details of your placements and mentor before you can formally take up an offer and begin the course
- The placement must provide a suitably qualified mentor (please see below)
- Placement schools may find the following DfE guidance helpful: Information for schools outside the UK wishing to offer an iQTS placement(opens in new tab).
Trainee requirements
As part of your online application, you'll need to agree to the online trainee agreement. You'll be asked to provide email addresses for two referees, your host school(s) head teacher, and mentor. They'll be contacted for further information and to provide their consent. Please note, all forms must be completed and submitted before being offered a place on the course.
Safeguarding and health requirements
Police checks are to be undertaken by trainees in their country of domicile. In addition, for those who've ever lived or worked in the UK, you must apply for an International Child Protection Certificate (ICPC)(opens in new tab). If you've never been to the UK, you don't need to apply for an ICPC.
To comply with safer recruitment practice, the partner school is required to complete a reference which includes local safeguarding and identity checks. These could include in-person ID checks and local police checks.
If you meet the criteria after submitting your application, you'll be invited for an online interview with the course staff.
Read our additional information about the course.
