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Non-academic requirements

Non-academic requirements for entry to courses in England, Wales and Scotland

Fitness to teach

You must be medically fit to take a teacher training course in England, Wales or Scotland. When you accept a place on a course, the training provider will send you a health questionnaire to assess your medical fitness. Training providers' medical advisers can usually make a decision about your medical fitness for teacher training on the basis your completed questionnaire. In exceptional circumstances, the medical adviser may ask you to have a medical examination before making a decision. You may have to pay for this examination.

Training providers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments for trainee teachers with disabilities. The GTTR encourages disabled applicants to give information about their disabilities and special needs on their applications to assist training providers in making the necessary preparations.

For information about additional funding for disabled students, visit the Directgov website.

Further guidance on fitness to teach in England can be found in the guidance to the Secretary of State's requirements for initial teacher training at www.tda.gov.uk/qts.


Working with children - declaration of criminal convictions

Before you can start a teacher training course, you will have to disclose any previous criminal convictions, cautions or bindovers irrespective of when they occurred and to agree to an enhanced criminal record check through the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) for courses in England and Wales or the Scottish Criminal Record Office Disclosure Service for courses in Scotland.

The training provider where you have accepted a place will tell you what you need to do and give you the necessary forms to enable them to carry out your criminal record check.

If you have a criminal record, it will not automatically prevent you from becoming a teacher. However, we recommend that you discuss any convictions, cautions or bindovers with training providers before you apply.

For more information on the CRB and enhanced disclosures, call 0870 90 90 811 or visit the Directgov website. To find out more about the Scottish Criminal Record Office Disclosure Service, visit www.disclosurescotland.co.uk, call 0870 609 6006 or email info@disclosurescotland.co.uk.


Classroom experience

Most training providers will require you to have gained at least two weeks' classroom experience before you start your teacher training. If you do not have any classroom experience, try to observe lessons and help out in the classroom at a local school before you apply. In your personal statement you can then describe what you have gained from this experience and how it has increased your motivation to become a teacher.

The Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) in England and Wales

The Vetting and Barring Scheme is designed to allow training providers to identify any individual who is barred from working with children and vulnerable adults, including elderly or sick people. The Government is currently revising its vetting and barring arrangements and you may need to take additional action to comply with any new arrangements that come into force. For the latest information about the Vetting and Barring Scheme, visit the Home Office website.

Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme in Scotland

If you are taking a teacher training programme in Scotland, you will need to join the PVG scheme. This scheme enables training providers in Scotland to identify potential trainee teachers who are barred from working with children, young people or vulnerable adults. For more information about the PVG scheme, visit www.scotland.gov.uk and enter 'PVG scheme' in the search facility.

Registration with the General Teaching Councils

Before starting a teacher training programme at training providers in England in 2011, trainee teachers had to self-declare their suitability for teaching to the GTC for England and training providers had to provisionally register these trainees with the GTC.

The procedures for trainee teachers starting teacher training programmes in England in 2012 are not known yet because the GTC for England will cease to exist after 31 March 2012. Visit www.gtce.org.uk for the latest information.

The General Teaching Councils in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will continue to operate after the end of March 2012. If you are doing your teacher training in one of these countries, you only need to register with the appropriate General Teaching Council after you have completed your training course.

Teaching in the Republic of Ireland

If you complete a teacher training course in England, Scotland or Wales and you want to teach in the Republic of Ireland, you will need to register with the Teaching Council in Ireland.

Applicants seeking registration in the Republic of Ireland will be required to provide a QTS certificate and certification of the completion of a Statutory Induction Period/Probation in the country where the teacher training programme was completed.

For more information, visit the Teaching Council in Ireland's website.