Teach First Training Programme
About this Programme
Teach First’s salaries retraining programme is your chance to lead where it matters most. Put your skills into action while gaining exciting new ones. Advance in ways you never imagined. All while giving the children society is failing the opportunities they need to fulfil their potential. Find out more for 2024.
Date & Time
6 weeks, place in school post October half-term | Ongoing
Stipend
Salaried retraining
Programme type
Applications Open
Applications Close
UK-wide
Location
Facilitated By
Teach First
We're a charity working to transform education with great teachers and leaders. We've recruited thousands of people onto our teacher training programmes, placing them in schools that serve areas of high economic deprivation.
About the Programme
Wondering if you’re meant for more?
More opportunities. More stability. More fulfilment.
Our Training Programme is your chance to lead where it matters most. Put your skills into action while gaining exciting new ones. Advance in ways you never imagined. All while giving the children society is failing the opportunities they need to fulfil their potential.
Our partner schools need great teachers more than ever. That’s why we’re delighted to be offering a second intake for 2024, to join the classroom in autumn. Apply today>>
Join other career changers on the UK's largest teacher training and leadership programme.
An outstanding two-year programme
- Start in the classroom next autumn. Not just observing lessons. Actually teaching them. From the start you’ll be a paid teacher, employed by the school.
- Help pupils from the poorest backgrounds reach their full potential.
- Get all the support you need – you’ll be supported, trained and assessed by a Teach First expert, a mentor at your school and a university tutor.
- Ofsted recently rated our teacher training programme as outstanding.
What happens on the Training Programme.
Earn a competitive salary
Your training is fully funded and you'll earn a salary from the outset.
From day one in the classroom, you’ll be a paid teacher employed directly by the school.
Once you finish our Training Programme, you’ll be a qualified teacher. You could earn up to £56,959 (inner London) or £46,525 (rest of England). Find out what you could earn.
Eligibility
You’ll need:
- a 2.1 degree or above (we'll consider a 2.2 for secondary teaching)
- grade C/4 or equivalent in GCSE maths and English
- for primary, a grade C/4 in one GCSE science subject as well
- the right to work in the UK for the duration of the programme
Teach in schools that need you the most
Our purpose is to give children facing the biggest barriers the chance to fulfil their potential.
We find and train teachers to work in the schools that need them most.
That means you might need to relocate when you join our Training Programme.
Grow your career quickly
You’ll finish our Training Programme with qualified teacher status. It's a teaching standard respected across the world and means you can teach in any state school in the country.
When you’re ready, we’ll help you step up and lead change at school.
How our trainees become leaders.
Why train to teach with Teach First?
Since 2003, we’ve improved the life chances and choices of over two million pupils.
Independent research shows our approach makes a significant difference to children’s attainment.
This is your chance to make a difference in some of the UK’s poorest communities. With Teach First, you can open up a world of possibilities – for you, and for those you’ll be teaching.
Your future is waiting. Now is the time to discover it. Don't miss out. Apply today>> Applications will close as spaces are filled – apply now.
Check out our eligibility page here or contact with your local recruiter by following this link.
It's also worth knowing:
- Completing our programme will earn you a Postgraduate Certificate in Education and Qualified Teacher Status. (PGCE and QTS). 99% of people who qualify as teachers with us achieve the top two grades (good or outstanding). You’ll also have the option of completing a master’s degree part-time over a third year.
- From September this year starting salaries for teachers will increase by 8.9 per cent.
- This support we give means our teachers over seven times more likely to progress to senior leadership roles early in their career than those who train through Higher Education Institution routes.
- Experience: In 2020, 31% of new trainees joined us from another career, 26% had graduated in the past two years, and 43% came straight from university. Your diversity is your strength: wherever you're coming from, you've got a set of unique skills to bring to the classroom - enabling you to develop as a fantastic teacher.
Click here for FAQs on the Teach First programme and the application process.
Hear from past Teach First alumni
Adrienne Tough
Adrienne joined the Teach First Training Programme in 2017, unsure if teaching would be right for her. She's now Head of Computing at Bolder Academy and has self-published a book to support pupils and other Computing teachers during lockdown.
Lizzie Pocklington
I thought about going into teaching, and that’s when I came across Teach First. What interested me most was their philosophy of wanting to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds; even though I don’t come from a particularly disadvantaged upbringing myself, I still went to a school that was failing in many areas.
Jon Robinson
I’d been thinking about becoming a teacher for a long time, but Teach First’s Training Programme seemed like the perfect way to actually make the leap. With a salary from day one, it helps make the dream a reality for people like me who are switching careers.
Programme FAQs
All your questions should be answered here.