Who are we?
The Teaching Agency is responsible for initial teacher training (ITT) in England. It provides a comprehensive programme of support to help you become a teacher, providing guidance all the way through the application process. Through ITT you'll receive extensive training, including strategies for managing pupil behaviour, and new teachers rate their training as a very good preparation for the classroom.
Why teaching?
Teaching is increasingly a career for the most able graduates, and offers high starting salaries compared to other average graduate starting salaries. It is a rewarding profession in more ways than one, offering fantastic career prospects, development opportunities and competitive financial benefits.
High quality teachers are in high demand, and if you are interested in teaching maths, physics, chemistry or a language, you could benefit from our exclusive Premier Plus service. As a top graduate you could receive a £20,000 tax-free training bursary, but only if you apply to start this year.
What are the benefits?
Teaching has always been a rewarding career, but now there are more reasons to teach than ever before. As a teacher you have fantastic career prospects and development opportunities in addition to competitive financial benefits. There are great opportunities to progress, and the skills you develop throughout your education and training will help you to advance quickly in your role.
Starting salaries in teaching are high compared to average graduate starting salaries and rise quickly after. Teachers begin on an average starting salary of £23,010, and see their salaries rise by an average of around 30 per cent after their first four years in the job.
If you are ambitious and want to progress in your career, then teaching is the profession for you - teachers are twice as likely to be in management positions 3.5 years into their career, compared to fellow graduates.
Nothing is guaranteed, but as a trained teacher, you currently enjoy good employment prospects. Currently 9 out of 10 new teachers who want to teach found teaching jobs in the first 12 months.
Teachers are very enthusiastic about their careers, enjoying the autonomy, variety and impact. Significantly more trained teachers stay in their chosen profession compared to other popular graduate careers.
As a top graduate you could receive a £20,000* tax-free training bursary, but only if you apply to start this year.
Next steps
To become a teacher in England you need to achieve qualified teacher status (QTS), and you can do this by successfully completing an initial teacher training (ITT) course.
There are a number of teacher training options available, so that you can choose the one which most suits your own personal needs.Postgraduate training courses can usually be completed in one year if full-time, but there are also flexible options available such as part-time study.
All ITT courses include gaining experience in schools to help develop your teaching skills, and are designed to build your confidence as you learn about key teaching methods. Whichever teacher training course you choose, you'll spend the majority of your time in a school. For example, about two thirds of a PGCE course will be spent on school placements.
All courses also deliver over 1,000 hours of training, and behaviour management is compulsory. 87% of all newly qualified teachers highly rated the overall quality of their training. To find out more about the different training options, please visit our website at www.education.gov.uk/teachroutes
If you're ready to apply, please visit our website, where you can also access a range of application tips and online support tools, such as our application form assistant and interactive interview preparation, at www.education.gov.uk/teachapply
There is also a comprehensive programme of support available from the Teaching Agency to help you, providing guidance all the way through the application process.
If you think you might be interested in teaching, and you want to find out more about the career, teacher training or the application process, sign up with the Teaching Agency at www.education.gov.uk/teachregister
Want to talk to someone?
If you would like to speak to us about teaching or teacher training, or you want to ask us a question about getting into teaching, please contact us on:
The Teaching Line - freephone 0800 389 2500 Facebook - www.facebook.com/getintoteaching Twitter - www.twitter.com/getintoteaching