Graduate teacher apprenticeships

Coronavirus (COVID-19) update: We’re still welcoming applications for September 2021. Our lecturers continue to deliver excellent teacher training online and will also be reviewing applications and holding interviews online.

The Graduate Teacher Apprenticeship Programme is a nationally recognised, work-based route into teaching. It offers a postgraduate-level qualification with no tuition fees and the opportunity to earn while you learn. It is aimed primarily at candidates who have a good understanding of what it means to work in a school and have built up some experience, perhaps as a teaching assistant or in similar role. Many candidates are working in schools already and are looking to make the next step.

Training

You will be employed by a school on the Unqualified Teacher pay scale. You will undertake off-the-job training, which will occupy 20% of your teaching time; this is split between face-to-face training at the University and independent training tasks in the workplace.

You will receive an induction at the University. The course will then build on well-established and successful foundations by combining the expertise of our course tutors who are experienced classroom practitioners and teacher trainers; with a dynamic curriculum designed to cater to your needs as a teacher apprentice. You will be encouraged to reflect upon your own practice and to critically engage with current research, policy and pedagogy, leading to a PGCE award with 60 Master’s Level credits and Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).

Eligibility 

You must be a graduate and be able to meet all of the Initial Teacher Education (ITE) entry requirements:

• grade C/4 or higher in maths, English language and a science (for primary)
• appropriate degree subject and grade (for secondary)
• pass the university’s selection process including numeracy and literacy assessment tasks
• an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check
• undertake Fitness to Teach checks

Please note: A non-UK citizen is usually eligible for funding if they have permission from the UK government to live in the UK (not for educational purposes), and have been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least the previous three years before the start of the apprenticeship.

How to apply

You will be required to be employed as an unqualified teacher on a full-time basis and paid according to the unqualified teacher (UQT) pay scale at point one or higher. You may be working with a school already, in which case it is possible that your school will be willing to arrange an apprenticeship training position for you. Alternatively, you can search for apprenticeships from the list below:

• Angel Islington Training Schools Alliance (currently only open to Islington residents or employees)
• Avanti Schools Trust 
• Hackney Teaching Schools Alliance (Kingsmead Primary School)
• New Wave Teaching School Alliance (Grazebrook Primary School)
• Viridis Federation of Schools
• 5 Wells Development Centre (Redwell Primary School in Wellingborough, Northants) 

All applications must be completed on UCAS by searching for the school. For example, if you would like to work with Angel Islington Training Schools Alliance, you would search for that school rather than London Metropolitan University. 

In most cases the apprenticeship requires a two-stage interview process, with an assessment at the school followed, for successful candidates, by an invitation to undertake the university’s selection process.