Bachelor of Education (BEd) or Bachelor of Arts/Science (BA/BSc) degree with QTS
If you do not already have a university degree, you can opt for a Bachelor degree which includes QTS.
A BEd is an Honours degree course in education; all graduates gain QTS in addition to a degree. A BA or BSc degree with QTS enables degree study alongside initial teacher training. The BEd route is particularly popular for the primary sector. There are some BA/BSc with QTS courses for secondary teaching, but few for languages. Colleagues gaining QTS for secondary teaching with a specialism in Maths or ICT for example, would need to develop understanding of language teaching methodology before being able to teach their community language.
Courses generally take three or four years full-time (or four to six years part-time) to complete.
Applications are made via the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).
Registered Teacher Programme (RTP)
If you have a degree from overseas, but the National Recognition Information Centre for the United Kingdom (UK NARIC) does not recognise your degree to be equivalent of a UK first degree, you can either ’top-up’ your degree through a UK institution or join the Registered Teacher Programme (RTP).
The RTP is for non-graduates who have successfully completed the equivalent of two years of higher education (HE). The training usually lasts two years and leads to a degree-equivalent qualification as well as QTS. The ITT provider would arrange suitable training to extend a trainee’s subject knowledge to degree level. Whilst some providers arrange school placements, candidates in community languages usually already have a teaching job in a school willing to employ and train them for the duration of the course.
Trainees on the RTP receive a monthly salary, usually based on the unqualified teachers' scale (from £15,113, 2008-09 figures). Apply direct to Employment Based Initial Teacher Trainer (EBITT) providers at any time. Be aware that the availability of RTP is limited and that there is tough competition for places.
