Changing career into teaching

With a degree, you can train to teach in England in about a year, either on a fee-funded course with a tax-free bursary of up to £29,000 or on a salaried route where a school employs you while you train. There is no upper age limit. Once you have qualified teacher status (QTS), you start on the main pay range, which is £34,069 at M1 outside London from 1 September 2026.

Do you need a degree?

For postgraduate teacher training, yes: a UK bachelor’s degree or equivalent, in any subject. The degree does not have to match what you will teach, but you need enough subject knowledge, and a course provider may ask you to do a subject knowledge enhancement course first if your degree is in something different.

You also need GCSEs (or equivalent) in English and maths at a standard pass, plus science for primary teaching. Providers can accept equivalency tests if you are missing one. Without a degree, the routes are an undergraduate degree with QTS or, in maths, a teacher degree apprenticeship being piloted.

Get Into Teaching, the DfE service, has advisers who can check your qualifications for free, including overseas degrees.

Routes for career changers

The main options in England are:

• a PGCE with QTS at a university, with school placements
• School Direct (fee-funded) or a SCITT, where schools lead the training
• salaried School Direct or a postgraduate teaching apprenticeship, where a school pays you as an unqualified teacher while you train
• Teach First, a salaried programme in schools in disadvantaged areas

Fee-funded routes give you student finance for fees and maintenance, plus any bursary. Salaried routes pay a wage, which matters with a mortgage or children, but they have fewer places and more competition. The guide to teacher training routes compares them in more detail.

Experienced unqualified teachers, such as long-serving instructors in schools or FE lecturers, may be able to gain QTS through an assessment-only route without a full course. Ask Get Into Teaching whether you qualify.

Bursaries and scholarships for 2026/27

Bursaries are tax-free, paid during the training year and never repaid. The amount depends on the subject:

Subject	Bursary	Scholarship (in place of bursary)
Chemistry, computing, physics	£29,000	£31,000
Maths	£29,000	None listed
French, German, Spanish	£20,000	£22,000
Other languages, design and technology	£20,000	None listed
Biology, geography	£5,000	None listed

Salaried trainees cannot get bursaries, but their school gets a grant of the same per-subject amount. A veterans’ bursary of £40,000 is available for eligible service leavers. Other subjects have no bursary. See teacher training bursaries and scholarships for eligibility.

What you will earn

Trainees on salaried routes are usually paid on the unqualified teacher range, which runs from £23,732 to £36,494 outside London from September 2026. Once you have QTS you move onto the main range. From 1 September 2026 the advisory points in England (excluding London) are:

Point	Salary
M1	£34,069
M2	£36,042
M3	£38,400
M4	£40,941
M5	£43,529
M6	£46,940

London and fringe schools pay more. Academies can set their own pay, though most follow these scales. The 2026 pay document is still in draft, so maintained schools apply the new rates once it is in force, backdated to 1 September. The full teacher pay scales guide has the London rates.

If you earn more than this now, starting at M1 can be a sharp drop. A school can place you higher on the main range for relevant experience, though you have no right to it, so ask before you accept.

Age and practical points

Neither training nor teaching has a maximum age, and many trainees start in their 30s, 40s or 50s. The job is physically and mentally demanding, and the working pattern is tied to the school day and term. Full-time teachers in England have 1,265 hours of directed time across 195 days a year, and planning and marking usually spill beyond that.

After training you complete early career teacher induction, which lasts the equivalent of two school years, with a mentor and a reduced timetable. You join the Teachers’ Pension Scheme automatically, with contributions from 7.4% for salaries up to £36,198.99.

Getting started

Spend some time in a school before you apply. Many providers want to see that you know what a classroom is like now, and Get Into Teaching can help arrange school experience. Applications for postgraduate teacher training in England go through the DfE’s Apply for teacher training service. Popular subjects and areas fill up, so apply early in the cycle. Your personal statement matters, and the guide on writing a teacher application statement applies to training applications as well as jobs.