Teacher training providers review your application in detail. They use it to get a sense of you as a person, your work history, and your qualifications. It’s therefore crucial to ensure you’re putting your best foot forward and presenting yourself in the best light.
To help you ace your application, we’ve broken down our top tips for an effective teacher training application that is sure to impress.
- Check you meet the requirements
The government sets national requirements for all Initial Teacher Training (ITT) courses, so it’s important that you check these basic requirements as well as any additional requirements set by individual providers.
The government states you’ll need:
- a degree
- grade 4 (C) or above in English and maths GCSEs
- grade 4 (C) or above in GCSE science if you want to teach primary
If you do not have GCSE grade 4 (C), you’ll need to show that you can meet an equivalent level.
Click the links below to view United Teaching’s candidate requirements and criteria.
- Explain how your work experience is relevant
Everything in your application needs to clearly signpost the reasons why you’d make a good teacher. Make sure to expand on your work or volunteering experience to highlight the parts that are relevant to teaching. For example, working with young people, leadership skills or giving presentations.
- Get some school experience
Having real experience in a school, even if only for a couple of hours a week, will set your application apart and demonstrate that you are serious about becoming a teacher. If you want to gain experience but work full-time, consider taking a day or half-day of annual leave, or adjust your hours if you’re able to work flexibly.
If you have an idea of which school you’d like to train in, try and get experience there so that you can build relationships with the staff before you apply. Many schools will be happy to accommodate your request if you give them enough notice, but if you’re having trouble getting school experience, get in touch with us and we’ll see how we may be able to help.
- Do your research
It’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with the world of teaching and education so that you can confidently use some of the specific terminology in your application, and if all goes well, your interview.
Reading articles in education sector publications such as Schools Week and TES will give you a flavour of the current debates happening at national level.
- Write a compelling personal statement
Most importantly, fine-tune your personal statement so that it really allows your skills, passion, and suitability for teaching to shine through. It’s worth taking the time to get this right, because it’s the only part that allows you to bring your personality into the application.
We’ve gone into more detail about this in a dedicated blog post.
Get some feedback on your statement before you submit it too – even if just to check the spelling and grammar, as making multiple mistakes will demonstrate that you haven’t invested the time and attention that your application deserves.
- Take your time
It’s usually quite obvious when something has been completed in a rush, and that’s not the impression you want to give. We recommend blocking out some time to work on your application, even if that means working on it gradually - little and often. That way, you’ll have plenty of time to gather your thoughts and information, make amendments, and review it with a fresh pair of eyes. It also helps to have somebody else look it over – they might just spot something you’ve missed.
Here’s wishing you all the best with your application!
If you’d like further advice, get in touch with our team who will be happy to help.
