If you have a teaching qualification from the following countries and regions, you will be able to apply for qualified teacher status in England.
Australia, Canada, the EEA, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the USA.
In addition, if you have a subject specialism in languages, mathematics or science and a teaching qualification to teach 11 to 16 year olds from the following countries, you are eligible to apply for QTS:
Ghana, India, Jamaica, Nigeria, Singapore, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
You will not have to pay a fee or undergo further training. However, to be awarded QTS you will need to meet certain criteria.
Requirements for QTS Application
To apply for QTS, you will be required to enter your names and your date of birth.
You will also be required to upload a valid identification document.
The document must show your date of birth and your nationality. If your ID document has several pages, you can merge them into one PDF file and upload.
Acceptable documents include:
- International passport
- Driving licence
- National identity card
- Birth certificate.
You can upload your files in PDF, JPG, PNG, DOCX or DOC format. Each file must be no larger than 50MB.
Teaching Qualification
This is the qualification that led to you being recognised as a teacher. It might be part of your university degree course, or it could be a separate qualification.
The National Certificate in Education (NCE) or the Teachers Certificate Grade II from Nigeria is not accepted as these do not meet the required level.
The QTS only accept applications from teachers who are qualified to teach children aged 11-16 in one of the following subjects:
Maths, Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish.
You’ll need to provide evidence that EITHER your teaching qualification specifically shows you can teach one of these subjects, OR at least 50% of your university degree was in one of them.
You’ll need to upload your certificate, along with a transcript that shows all the modules you studied and the scores you achieved.
English language proficiency
If you were born in, or hold citizenship of any of the following countries, you’re exempt from English language requirements.
Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Ireland, Malta, New Zealand, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, USA, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, or Wales.
However, you’ll need to provide a passport or other official form of identification as proof of citizenship. You can do this in the ‘About you’ section of the application form.
For applicants in Nigeria, you need to provide proof of English language proficiency. You can provide IELTS or TOEFL test result in this regard.
Work History
You need to add the current or most recent role you’ve held since completing your teaching qualification.
You need to show you’ve been employed as a teacher in a school for 1 UK school year (9 months of active teaching time) or more, since becoming recognised as a teacher.
You’ll need to provide the name and email address of a contact who can confirm that during your professional work experience you:
- Worked unsupervised with children aged between 5 and 16 years
- Were solely responsible for planning, preparing and delivering lessons to at least 4 students at a time
- Were solely responsible for assessing and reporting on the progress of those students.
The Department for Education will contact the references you’ve provided to verify your work history before they award QTS.
Every role you add must meet ALL of the requirements above.
Any teaching role that do not meet ALL of these requirements will not be considered.
Provide proof that you’re recognised as a teacher
For applicants in Nigeria:
You’ll need to provide a Letter of Professional Standing (LoPs) from the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).
You should request it by emailing LoPs@trcn.gov.ng.
You cannot send this document yourself – instead, you must contact the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) by emailing LoPs@trcn.gov.ng and ask them to send it directly to The Department for Education at ApplyQTS.Verification@education.gov.uk.
The document must confirm:
- That you’ve completed a teaching qualification/teacher training
- That you’ve successfully completed any period of professional experience comparable to an induction period (if required)
- That your authorisation to teach has never been suspended, barred, cancelled, revoked or restricted, and that you have no sanctions against you
- The age ranges and subjects you’re qualified to teach
- That you’re qualified to teach at state or government schools.
This must be dated within 3 months of your application for QTS.
If the document is not received within 90 days of the date that you submit your application, your application will be closed.
You should request your Letter of Professional Standing from the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) by emailing LoPs@trcn.gov.ng. You can only do this after you’ve applied for QTS.
TRCN will require you to pay them a fee of ₦60,000 and provide copies of your teaching documents. You’ll also need to provide your QTS application reference number as proof that you’ve applied.
Submit your application
After you have entered the required information and uploaded all the required documents, you can then submit your QTS application.
Click here to apply for QTS or click here to complete your application.
Step 2: Find a Teaching Job in the UK
After you’ve obtained the Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), you can now go on to apply for teaching jobs in England. You can apply to individual schools who are licensed sponsors.
Select a job to apply for, and contact the school to check they are open to sponsoring skilled worker visas. Submit your application, and if you are offered the job, you’ll then be able to apply for your visa.
Click here to find available teaching jobs in UK.
Step 3: Apply for a visa
After you must have obtained the qualified teacher status (QTS) and a teaching job at a school in England, you can then apply for a visa.
The main visa route for non-UK teachers in England is the skilled worker visa.
To apply for a skilled worker visa, you will first need to search for a teaching job in England. You can use the UK government’s Teaching vacancies service to search for available teaching roles.
Before you apply for a teaching job, contact the school to make sure it is a Home Office licensed sponsor. If the school is a sponsor, it can help you apply for your visa. Schools can also become sponsors to employ you.
You’ll be able to apply for your skilled worker visa if:
- you have a job offer from a school that is a licensed Home Office sponsor
- you can speak, read, write, and understand English
- your salary meets the requirements for a skilled worker visa.
Teach in England if you qualified outside the UK.
Requirements for a skilled worker visa.
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