Guidance: Qualified teacher status (QTS): qualify to teach in England

Find out how to obtain qualified teacher status (QTS) to teach in a maintained school or non-maintained special school in England.

From:

Department for Education and Teaching Regulation Agency

Published

15 April 2014

Last updated

28 March 2023 — See all updates

1. Overview
2. Teachers who trained in England
3. Teachers who trained in Wales
4. Teachers trained or recognised in Northern Ireland or Scotland
5. Teachers who trained outside the UK
6. Recognition of QTS for teachers who want to teach overseas
7. Qualified teacher learning and skills (QTLS)
8. Independent sector teachers
9. Contact

Overview

Qualified teacher status (QTS) is a legal requirement to teach in many English schools and is considered desirable for teachers in the majority of schools in England.

Get into Teaching explains teacher training routes to QTS for UK citizens.

The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) are responsible for awarding QTS. They also award QTS to qualified teachers outside England.

Schools where QTS is a legal requirement

Schools where QTS is a legal requirement are referred to as maintained schools. Maintained schools are part of the state-funded school system in England – funding and oversight are generally provided by the local authority.

They include:

• community schools or voluntary controlled schools (where the local authority employs the school’s staff and is responsible for admissions)
• foundation and voluntary-aided schools (where the school’s governing body employs the staff and is responsible for admissions)

You must also have QTS to teach in a non-maintained special school.

Schools where QTS is not a legal requirement

In some schools in England, QTS is not a legal requirement. For example:

• within the English state school sector, academy schools and free schools can employ teachers without QTS
• outside the English state school sector, private schools or independent schools can employ teachers without QTS

Even where QTS is not a legal requirement, many schools use it to assess the quality of candidates for teaching jobs.

Teachers who trained in England

When you finish your training, your initial teacher training provider will tell us about your results. This applies to all teacher training routes and to those awarded QTS following the assessment only route.

If you’re successful, we’ll award you QTS and update your teacher record. Your QTS certificate will be available online from the teacher self-service website.

Teachers who trained in Wales

If you completed your initial teacher training in Wales, you’ll be awarded QTS by the Education Workforce Council (EWC). This is recognised in England and the information is held on teacher records.

Teachers trained or recognised in Northern Ireland or Scotland

If you trained in either Northern Ireland or Scotland, you must apply for QTS if you intend to take up a teaching post in a maintained school or non-maintained special school in England.

Overseas trained teachers who have gained recognition as a teacher in either Northern Ireland or Scotland can also apply for QTS in England.

You can apply for QTS.

We aim to assess applications within 90 working days.

Teachers who trained outside the UK

If you are a qualified teacher from a country outside the UK or have gained teaching experience outside the UK, read the guidance on routes to QTS for teachers who qualified outside the UK.

Recognition of QTS for teachers who want to teach overseas

To find out if the country where you plan to work recognises QTS, and whether they require any further teaching qualifications, check with the organisation that regulates teachers in that country.

UK ENIC is the UK’s national information centre for professional qualifications and can give you contact details for the appropriate organisation in your chosen country.

Qualified teacher learning and skills (QTLS)

If you are an experienced post-14 teacher and have QTLS status and membership of the Society for Education and Training, you may be eligible to work as a qualified teacher in schools in England.

You can find out how to obtain QTLS and how to teach in a maintained school with QTLS.

Independent sector teachers

If you’re from the independent sector, you need QTS to teach in the maintained and non-maintained special school sectors.

There are a number of routes that assess previous teaching experience.

Learn more about teaching and training to teach in a private or independent school in England.