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CONTENTS

1. What’s next for newly qualified teachers (NQT)?

2. Finding your first teaching job

3. NQT induction in England: the early career framework

4. NQT induction in Wales

5. Probationer teacher induction in Scotland

6. Beginning teachers in Northern Ireland

7. NQTs and teaching in another UK nation

What’s next for newly qualified teachers (NQT)?

As a newly qualified teacher (NQT), you won’t be fully qualified until an induction period is successfully completed. Before that, in order to teach you legally need to be registered as a teacher.

Qualified Teacher Status registration in England or Wales

When you complete your teacher training in England and Wales, your training provider will recommend you for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). QTS is awarded by the Teaching Regulation Agency in England, or the Education Workforce Council (EWC) in Wales. If you're employed to teach in Wales, it’s also a legal requirement to register as a teacher with the EWC.

Provisional teacher registration in Scotland

If you practise in a Scottish state school, you must be registered with the General Teaching Council Scotland (GTCS). If you qualified to teach in Scotland the process begins before the end of your course, when you’ll be awarded provisional registration. You can gain full registration after completing your probation.

Teacher registration in Northern Ireland

If you want to practise in a state-funded school in Northern Ireland, you must be registered with the General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland (GTCNI). If you’re taking a teacher training course in Northern Ireland, GTCNI’s registration team will visit your institution and collect completed registration forms.

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Finding your first teaching job

Towards the end of your teacher training, you’ll need to start applying for your first teaching post – unless you’re on the Teacher Induction Scheme in Scotland, which will place you in a school.

The main recruitment period is from early to late spring, but jobs can crop up at any time. Teaching roles in primary schools may be advertised on the local authority website, while secondary school positions may be more widely advertised via national recruitment sites. The advert will normally state whether the post is suitable for NQTs.

It’s easier to complete an induction if you can find a permanent or fixed-term position, however you may need to consider supply teaching.

Your induction can only take place in certain institutions so check that any you’re considering fit the bill, otherwise you’ll need to start your induction at a later date.

NQT induction in England: the early career framework

The induction for NQT teachers in England changed from September 2021. NQTs are now known as early career teachers (ECT) and will have a two-year induction to give them more support at the start of their career.

Your induction can take place in almost any state school, academy, free school or independent school (excluding underperforming schools or schools with 'special measures' imposed).

You can be a supply teacher, but periods of less than a term won’t count towards your induction. If your supply contract is extended for another term, an induction should be put in place immediately.

During your induction you’ll get professional development training. Introduced in 2021, the Early Career Framework (ECF) structures training around the Teachers’ Standards. Based on the evidence of what new teachers most need to know or do, it’ll help you with strategies in the classroom or to reflect on your practice. Your school may provide ECF training themselves or may use an external agency like Teach First.

Support is provided by a mentor, who gives targeted feedback on your classroom practice. To allow time for training and mentoring during your induction, your teaching timetable is reduced by 10% in the first year and 5% in the second.

There’s no time limit for your induction, though it’s best to start as soon as you can. However, after five years you can’t work as a short-term supply teacher if you’ve not taken an induction. You can’t ‘retake’ an induction if you didn’t complete it satisfactorily.

To pass your induction you need to pass two formal assessments at the middle and end. These are conducted by an induction tutor (or headteacher), who determines how well you meet the Teachers’ Standards for England.

NQT induction in Wales

In Wales, the induction period is usually completed within a single school year – i.e. across three terms. Supply teaching of any duration counts towards your induction year. It can take place in any maintained or suitable independent school in Wales, so long as they aren’t in ‘special measures’.

The induction aims to give NQTs a good start to their teaching career, where they continue to learn the best methods, develop reflective practice and effective collaboration, and make use of evidence and research.

If you completed your teacher training in Wales, you’ll have drawn up a career entry profile with your tutor. This forms the basis of your induction profile, and both are added to your digital Professional Learning Passport (PLP). The PLP is used to document your learning while on induction and in your professional life as a teacher thereafter.

NQTs get day-to-day support and coaching from a mentor. This includes NQT supply teachers. Your mentor will observe your teaching and complete profile reviews with you, working with an external verifier. Your PLP will be used to identify areas of development. In addition, eight days of professional learning will help you to develop your practice and learn more about national priorities.

To give you time for your training and mentoring, your teaching timetable will be reduced by 10%.

There’s no time limit for completing your induction. All periods of employment as a teacher – whether full-time, part-time or supply – count towards the number of sessions required.

To pass your induction you must demonstrate that you’ve made satisfactory progress against the five Professional Standards for Teaching and Leadership for Wales.

Probationer teacher induction in Scotland

There are two routes for teaching probation in Scotland:

• Teacher Induction Scheme (TIS) – a guaranteed one-year full-time training post for every eligible student who qualifies at a Scottish university
• Flexible route – you complete the induction period if you decide against the TIS, are ineligible for it, are unable to commit to a full one-year post, or aren’t practising in a Scottish state school

If you trained in Scotland, you’ll have completed a Teacher Education profile identifying your strengths and areas for development. This is used for your TIS probation profile.

When signing up to the TIS you indicate five local authorities in which you’d consider teaching. You could be assigned a post in any one of these. Alternately, probationer teachers willing to work anywhere in Scotland may benefit from a financial incentive. You begin the scheme in the August after successfully completing your teacher training course.

During the TIS, you’ll have a reduced teaching timetable (80%), access to a support teacher or mentor, and dedicated time for professional learning. This could include shadowing other teachers, collaborative working and reflective analysis. Some of your teaching sessions will also be observed. All these experiences are recorded on your probation profile.

The flexible route takes longer than the TIS, requiring 270 days rather than 190, but you have five years in which to complete it. If you take the TIS route, you’ll have three years from your provisional registration.

Towards the end of your probation, your profile is submitted to the General Teaching Council for Scotland. You’ll be assessed on how well you meet the Standard for Full Registration in Scotland.

Beginning teachers in Northern Ireland

NQTs in Northern Ireland are known as early career teachers or ‘beginning teachers’. Following teacher training you must complete a one-year period of induction plus a two-year Early Professional Development (EPD) programme. All three of these phases measure your progress against the standards of professional competence for teachers in Northern Ireland.

As well provisionally registering with the GTCNI, you’ll need to register with Northern Ireland’s Education Authority and on the Northern Ireland Substitute Teachers Register (NISTR). Many beginning teachers are employed as substitute teachers.

During your induction you’re expected to develop your reflective practice to improve your teaching. A career entry profile is completed towards the end of your teacher training, outlining your strengths and areas for development. This forms the basis of your induction action plan and targets. Evidence of your progress against these targets and the teacher competences is recorded in a portfolio.

You’ll be supported on your induction by a teacher tutor in your school, and a programme of professional development.

There’s no time limit for completing the induction, but it’s recommended you start it as soon as possible. You can complete an induction in a state school elsewhere in Great Britain, but you’ll need to prove this to the GTCNI on your return.

Your induction is completed when your school's Board of Governors confirm you’ve completed the core requirements.

Next is two years of Early Professional Development (EPD Year 1 and EPD Year 2). This is the third stage of integrated teacher education. It sees a shift in your reflective practice from thinking about teaching to thinking about learning, and improved pupil outcomes.

Like the induction, you’ll be set targets for development and will need to evidence further progress against Northern Ireland’s teacher competences. The school will confirm your successful completion of EPD with the GTCNI and Northern Ireland’s Education Authority.

NQTs and teaching in another UK nation

It could be that having completed teacher training in one UK nation, you move to another. If you’ve not yet completed an induction, you’ll be required to follow the induction required by NQTs in that nation.

If you’re moving to England or Wales and you trained in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you’ll need QTS to teach in a maintained school or non-maintained special school. If you’re fully registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland or Northern Ireland, you’re likely to be given QTS in England and Wales. You’d also need to apply to have your qualifications recognised by the Education Workforce Council if you wish to work in Wales.

If you’re moving to Scotland and you trained as a teacher in another UK country, you’ll need to apply for registration with the General Teaching Council Scotland.

If you want to practise in a state-funded school in Northern Ireland and qualified elsewhere in the UK, you’re eligible to apply for registration with the General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland. If you completed an induction plus two further years of teaching elsewhere in the UK, you won’t normally be required to take part in Early Professional Development training.

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