References

Your principal and second referees should know you well enough to comment on your personal qualities and suitability for teaching

The reference is a vital part of your application. You are responsible for ensuring that your principal referee provides a reference. You cannot pay for your application or send it to us until a reference has been provided.

Who should be your principal referee?

If you are at university or college, or if you finished your studies within the last five years, your principal referee should ideally be a tutor who can comment on your academic achievements and your personal qualities.

If you are a joint-honours graduate and you want to teach one main subject at secondary or further education level, your principal referee should ideally be a tutor from the department where you studied that subject at degree level.

If you finished your studies more than five years ago or within the last five years and you cannot obtain a reference from a university or college tutor, your principal referee should be a responsible person who knows you well enough to write with authority about you, for example, an employer, a training officer or careers adviser. Your referee should be able to comment in detail about your suitability for your chosen PGCE or PGDE courses, and any training or study you have done recently.

Your principal referee must write your reference in English.

Who should be your second referee?

Your second referee must be a responsible person who knows you, and who can provide a character reference for you and comment on your suitability for teaching. You do not need to ask your second referee to provide a reference on your application. Training providers will contact your second referee if they want a second reference.

Who must not be your referee?

You must not choose family members, friends, partners or ex-partners as your principal or second referee. If we find this to be the case, your application may be cancelled.

Providing your referees' details

Before entering the details for your principal and second referees, you should check that the other sections of your application have been checked, saved and marked as complete. These are:-


  • personal details
  • choices
  • qualifications
  • personal statement.

When these four sections have been marked as complete, you should enter the following details for your principal and second referees:-


  • their names
  • their relationships to you (for example tutor, lecturer, careers adviser or employer)
  • their addresses
  • their telephone numbers, including the international dialling codes
  • their fax numbers, if they have one, including the international dialling codes
  • their email addresses.

You must enter the name, relationship to you and address for both your referees as well as an email address for your principal referee before you can record the referees' details section as complete. It is important that you provide as much information as possible, as we or the training providers may wish to contact your referees for further information about you.

How to obtain your reference

When you have marked all five sections of your application as complete, you email your principal referee from the Apply system to request a reference. When you have sent this email, you cannot change any information in your application, except your referee details, until after we have processed it. The Apply system allows you to change the details for your principal referee and, if necessary, send another email request for a reference to a new email address. You can also request a reference from an alternative principal referee.

We send you an email when your referee agrees to provide a reference and another one when a reference has been provided. You can check at regular intervals to see if your referee has added a reference, by logging back into your application and clicking on the 'reference' icon to view the reference history log.

If no reference is provided within 14 days of your original email request, we send an automated reminder email to your principal referee, but you should also contact your referee independently to find out the current situation. After we have sent our automated reminder email you can log back into the reference section of your application at any time to send a standard email reminder to your referee. You cannot send more than one reminder in any 24-hour period.

You can only pay for your application and send it to us when the reference history log shows that your principal referee has provided a reference. You cannot read your reference.

Reference history log

The reference history log records all the actions taken to obtain a reference from your principal referee and informs you when a reference has been provided. The log includes dates for the following:


  • your email to your principal referee to request a reference
  • our automated reminder email
  • all your reminder emails
  • receipt of your reference.