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Guidance to accompany the Requirements for Initial Teacher Training (ITT)

The aim of this guidance is to clarify the requirements and to develop a common understanding among all providers and partners, particularly those new to initial teacher training (ITT). It is designed to help everyone involved in ITT to understand the rationale and scope of the requirements.

For each requirement, this guidance provides:

  • the rationale
  • the scope
  • where relevant, further information
  • questions or issues that providers may wish to consider about their provision.

The revised requirements for initial teacher training give ITT providers increased flexibility in the way they design, deliver and manage their programmes. The requirements are statutory and apply to all ITT providers and all routes to qualified teacher status (QTS). This guidance is not statutory. It is intended to support providers in the design and delivery of programmes, and in the assessment of trainees against the standards for the award of QTS.

All providers will work in partnership, supported by a partnership agreement. Partnerships can consist of:

  • schools working with a higher education institution (HEI) as the accredited provider on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes;
  • several schools working together, with or without the involvement of a higher education institution, to provide school-centred ITT (SCITT); or
  • a school or schools working together, sometimes in partnership with an HEI, local authority, or commercial organisation to provide an employment-based route to QTS.

In this guidance, the term 'schools' is used to include further education institutions, early years settings or other settings where trainee teachers can demonstrate that they meet the QTS standards. Training 'routes' may be undergraduate or graduate, full-time or part-time, and include distance learning and other flexible and employment-based routes. They will all, however, lead to the award of QTS. Robust quality assurance arrangements will ensure that providers continue to comply with these requirements.

Ofsted will look at whether providers are meeting the requirements when they inspect their provision. Details of how they will do this are contained in the Framework for the Inspection of Initial Teacher Training for the Award of Qualified Teacher Status 2005–2011, published jointly by Ofsted and the TDA, and in Ofsted’s Handbook for the Inspection of Initial Teacher Training 2005–2011 and any supplementary guidance. Ofsted publications are available through its website at: www.ofsted.gov.uk.