Overview 

Transform your future and the lives of young people with expert-led, in-school teacher training, run by WeST Training Institute in partnership with England’s largest professional development provider, Ambition Institute.

• Qualify as a secondary teacher in 12 months.
• Benefit from evidence-based, flexible learning online and in-person.
• Achieve qualified teacher status (QTS) with a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE).
• Gain hands-on classroom experience and start your career with confidence.

Benefits

• Learn with England’s largest professional development provider: We are partnered with national education charity, Ambition Institute to deliver our programme. Ambition is England’s largest professional development provider, In 2023/24, 1 in 9 teachers and school leaders in state-funded schools developed professionally with Ambition.
• Improve children’s lives: Our mission with Ambition is to help young people reach their full potential, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. By joining our programme, you can help give every child the best possible start in life.
• Train in school: You’ll complete most of your training in your main placement school and will also gain further skills and experience in a contrasting school. This school-based approach will give you immediate opportunities to practise the theory you’ve learnt in a classroom and will also allow you to build relationships with your pupils, teachers, staff, and the wider school community. By the end of your training, you’ll have the confidence to teach in a classroom independently.
• Be guided by a mentor: You will also receive one-on-one support every week from your dedicated mentor, who will be an experienced teacher that works in your school. You mentor will offer coaching and guidance enabling you to put your learning into practice in a structured, step-by-step way, before taking it live in the classroom. Your mentoring sessions will also include protected time to discuss your wellbeing.
• Qualify as a teacher in 12 months: On successful completion of the programme, you will have Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) with a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) and 60 credits towards a Master’s Degree. Each of which will help you thrive in the classroom and start earning a minimum starting salary of £30,000 once qualified.
• Become an expert in a subject you're passionate about: At least 50% of your weekly modules will focus on your chosen secondary subject, for context, typically other SCITT programmes offer a 30% subject focus. This means, through our programme, you'll be given the foundation skills and knowledge to become an expert teacher in your chosen subject.
• Benefit from blended learning: We blend the high-quality academic training you’d expect to get from a university with immersive, classroom learning. You’ll benefit from a combination of face-to-face training sessions and theoretical study on our easy-to-use online learning portal.

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible to apply, you will need:

• An undergraduate bachelor's degree with honours, generally 2:2 or above, or equivalent.
• A GCSE grade 4/C or above in English and maths, or equivalent.

International candidates

We also accept international qualifications that are equivalent to our eligibility criteria above. You will need to provide an ENIC statement of comparability to progress with your application. This costs £49.50 + VAT. It takes 15 working days to complete your order from the date ENIC receives your qualification documents and payment. For more information, and to apply for your ENIC statement, please visit UK ENIC.

Please also note you must have permission to work in the UK full-time by the start and for the duration of the training programme. Unfortunately, we cannot sponsor your visa.

Training

The programme begins with a five-day conference, where you’ll meet your fellow trainees and start to build a foundation of expertise to underpin your teacher training year.

Following the conference, you will begin your main placement in a school, where you’ll experience a mix of study modules, live training sessions and classroom practice. Study modules can be completed at your own pace through our online learning platform, which will provide you with a foundation of theory to build your practice on.

At every stage, you'll be guided by your own personal mentor.

How you'll learn

You’ll learn through a combination of weekly self-guided learning, face-to-face and online sessions with other trainees. These sessions are paced and structured to give you the opportunity to take a complex area of teaching and unpick it with the help of education experts.

Your practice builds straight from your weekly study activities and includes classroom teaching practice, peer support and one-to-one coaching from your mentor.

You’ll also have:

• Focused topic weeks where we take a complex area of teaching and study it with the help of additional experts in education.
• Additional placement days outside of your school where you will experience the breadth of the education system in England.

What you'll learn

You’ll learn about what makes a good teacher and put this learning into practice inside and outside the classroom. At every step, you will be supported by your own dedicated teaching mentor.

Teacher Training is divided into five strands:

• Behaviour: How you can create calm, safe and purposeful places of learning where all children and young people can achieve.
• Instruction: How you can support all children and young people to learn in the classroom – from thinking about how you present information to helping them learn independently in lessons.
• Curriculum: How you can design lessons and curricula that help children and young people learn new and more complex ideas over time.
• Assessment: How you can better understand the impact your teaching is having and how to respond when your pupils struggle.
• Professionalism: Looking at what it is to be a teacher and how to prepare for your professional career.

Each module starts by introducing you to the ideas and theories underpinning the practice. You will then learn, step-by-step, how to apply these ideas in the classroom. Your tutors and mentor will make sure you have plenty of opportunities to see great teaching in action and understand the key learning before you put it into practice yourself.

We have designed the curriculum so that you:

• Build confidence in teaching your subject.
• Focus intensely on areas of teaching we know can be complex and difficult to master.
• Tackle areas, like pupil behaviour, right from the beginning of your training.
• Revisit all your learning over time so that you keep improving.

If you're teaching a secondary subject at least 50% of your weekly modules will focus on your chosen secondary subject, providing an excellent opportunity for you to develop your expertise in teaching this subject.

How you'll be assessed

You will be assessed through a mixture of written assignments and classroom observation.

We’ll make sure your assessment is energising, supportive and manageable. In your day-to-day training there will be opportunities to show us what you can do and where we can help you further. We’ll use a range of assessment tools to help you showcase your growing capabilities, inside and outside the classroom.

Programme Length

This is a 12-month, full-time, postgraduate programme.

Apply

Applications for our September 2025 cohort are open. You can start your application here: https://www2.ambition.org.uk/l/330231/2024-11-01/yzczr

Who can apply?

Training is open to anyone who might have an interest in becoming a teacher, has a degree or equivalent and has permission to work in the UK before their training begins. You might be:

• A recent graduate looking for the first step in your career.
• A teaching assistant looking to transition into teaching your own class.
• Looking for a completely new career path.

We welcome candidates of all ages, from all backgrounds, and with all types of experience.

Tuition Fees

If you are enrolled on an unsalaried place, you can apply for government funding to cover the costs of your tuition fees. Tuition fees for our Teacher Training programme are £9,250 for full-time study.

You may also apply for a maintenance loan of up to £13,022 to help with your living costs. You can do this even if you already have a student loan, regardless of whether you get a teaching bursary or scholarship. You will then only have to make loan repayments once you are earning.

To find out more, and to check if you're eligible to apply for tuition fees and maintenance loans, please visit Gov.uk

Up to date bursary and scholarship information is available here: Get into Teaching

What is the application process?

Application: The first step of the application process is to register via this form: https://www2.ambition.org.uk/l/330231/2024-11-01/yzczr and complete the application form that follows. This will take you approximately 15 minutes to complete.

Assessment: Once your application has been assessed and if you are eligible, you will then be invited to attend an assessment centre, this will include an in-person interview and one or two activities which you will know the details of in advance. Please note you may also be asked to share your proof of eligibility and complete some short online tests as part of the assessment stage.

Offer: If you are successful at the assessment stage you will be provided with a conditional offer. Please note the conditions of the offer are dependent on you completing the relevant pre-programme checks, such as checking degree certificate gradings and DBS check.