Working as a teacher in England if you qualified outside the UK

You will need:

the correct visa or status
teaching skills and experience you can demonstrate to an employer
to pass criminal and professional safeguarding checks (these will be organised by your employer)

The correct visa or status could be one of the following:

a job offer allowing you to apply for a skilled worker visa
eligibility for another type of visa
a pre-existing right to work in the UK, such as settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme or indefinite leave to remain in the UK

Irish citizens do not need a visa to work or live in the UK.

It is also very helpful to have:

a teaching qualification (this can be from your own or another non-UK country)
English ‘qualified teacher status’ (QTS)

Use Get into Teaching for general information and support about being a teacher in England, including details on salaries and benefits.

Qualified teacher status (QTS)

International qualified teachers can work as a teacher in England for up to 4 years without QTS. Learn more about the 4-year rule.

In some schools in England, QTS is not a legal requirement. You can be employed as a teacher without QTS in:

academy schools and free schools
private schools or independent schools

However, in many state schools, teachers must have QTS. Even where QTS is not a legal requirement, the majority of English schools use it to assess the quality of candidates for teaching jobs.

Apply for QTS if you teach, or have teaching experience, outside the UK.

Visas and immigration

This section explains the visas and immigration routes you may be able to use to work in England.

Check if you can still apply to the EU Settlement Scheme

If you’re from the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland, you might be able to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme to continue living, working and studying in the UK without applying for a visa.

The deadline for most people to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme was 30 June 2021.

If you or your family are from the EEA or Switzerland, you can still apply if you or a family member were living in the UK by 31 December 2020.

You must also either:

meet one of the criteria for a later deadline to apply
have ‘reasonable grounds’ for not applying by 30 June 2021

More information is available about the eligibility criteria for later applications to the EU Settlement Scheme.

You can also apply to the EU Settlement Scheme if you already have pre-settled status and are applying for settled status. You must apply to the EU Settlement Scheme again before your pre-settled status expires to stay in the UK.

Apply for a skilled worker visa

The main visa route for non-UK teachers in England is the skilled worker visa.

To apply for a skilled worker visa, you will first need to search for a teaching job in England. You can use the UK government’s Teaching vacancies service to search for available teaching roles.

Before you apply for a teaching job, you will need to find out if the school is a Home Office licensed employer sponsor. Sometimes it will be the local authority or academy trust that holds the sponsor licence instead of the individual school. You could check the Home Office’s Register of licensed sponsors: workers but you should also check directly with the school. Sponsors can help you apply for your visa, and schools can apply to be employer sponsors in order to employ you.

You’ll be able to apply for your skilled worker visa if:

you have a job offer from a school that is a licensed Home Office employer sponsor
you can speak, read, write, and understand English
your salary meets the requirements for a skilled worker visa

Salary requirement for a skilled worker visa

The salary threshold you must meet depends on your qualification status and region.

This table shows the minimum salary non-UK teachers must earn to be eligible for a skilled worker visa, by region and status (QTS and non-QTS).

	Inner London	Outer London	London fringe	Rest of England
QTS	£32,157	£29,915	£26,948	£25,714
Non-QTS	£23,099	£21,832	£20,480	£20,480

These thresholds match the minimum salaries on the national teachers’ pay ranges, except for the non-QTS rates in the London fringe and the rest of England, where the threshold is the minimum for a skilled worker visa.

Working part time as a teacher

You can work part time, but your salary must meet the threshold for a skilled worker visa. There are 2 requirements:

your part-time salary must be at least £20,480
the full-time equivalent of your salary must meet the minimum set for your region and status (QTS or non-QTS)

Schools have some flexibility in how they set salaries. You may be able to negotiate a different rate of pay if the salary on offer does not meet the skilled worker visa requirements.

The salary requirements for a skilled worker visa apply whatever type of school you work in (funded by the UK government or in the private sector).

Apply for a skilled worker visa.

Work as a teacher in England without a skilled worker visa

This section explains the other visa and immigration routes you may be able to use to work as a teacher in England.

Graduate visa

If you’re already an international student in the UK, you can apply for a graduate visa on successful completion of your degree. To apply, you’ll need to have been sponsored by a Home Office licensed student sponsor over the course of your studies.

The graduate visa will allow you to work, or look for work, in the UK for up to 2 years after completing your studies (3 years for PhD students) without a sponsor. This includes working as a teacher.

You will be able to switch from a graduate visa to another visa (such as the skilled worker visa) without having to leave the UK if you meet the requirements for the other visa.

The Youth Mobility Scheme visa

The Youth Mobility Scheme allows young people from certain countries to come to the UK each year to study or work without a sponsoring educational institution or sponsoring employer. This includes working as a teacher.

A Youth Mobility Scheme visa lasts up to 2 years. You may be able to switch from a Youth Mobility Scheme visa to another visa route (for example the skilled worker visa) without having to leave the UK. You’ll need to meet the requirements for the other visa route.

Other visas

Depending on your personal circumstances, you may be able to work in the UK on alternative visas – for example, a Family visa, a UK Ancestry visa or, if you’re from Hong Kong, a British National (Overseas) visa.

You can also check if you need a UK visa.

International travel during coronavirus (COVID-19)

Global travel, including to the UK, is affected by coronavirus (COVID-19). If you’re a non-UK national, check your country’s advice as well as the UK’s advice to find out what you must do before you travel to England and after you arrive. This includes what COVID-19 tests you need to take and the quarantine rules for travel to England.

Find out what to do if you need a visa to travel to the UK.

Further information is available for those affected by changes to UK immigration and borders due to coronavirus (COVID-19).

Early career teacher (ECT) induction for teachers in England

Teachers who gain qualified teacher status (QTS) through the assessment only or English teacher training routes will be able to apply for paid teaching jobs in all schools in England.

Many schools will also require you to complete an early career teacher (ECT) 2-year induction period, when you’ll work and be assessed as a paid teacher in a school. This induction period is part of the UK government’s early career framework for teachers. You’ll be expected to show you meet the teachers’ standards and you’ll also get training and support from a mentor.

ECT exemptions

In some circumstances, depending on your teaching experience, you may be exempt from some or all of ECT induction.

You will not have to undergo ECT induction if you’re applying to the Teaching Regulation Agency for a fast-track QTS and you’re a teacher who qualified in:

the European Economic Area (EEA)
Australia
Canada
New Zealand
the USA

Help for maths, physics and modern foreign languages teachers

If you’re interested in teaching maths, physics or modern foreign languages, and you have QTS, sign up to the Get an adviser service. You’ll get personalised support from a trained Department for Education (DfE) adviser to help you apply for jobs in England.

Contact

For help with the information on this page, email us at [email protected].

DfE does not directly administer teacher training courses or appoint teachers, so we cannot help with individual applications to training providers or schools.

You can contact Get an adviser for help with your application if you are eligible for their service.

Further information

Find out more about English standards for teachers, curriculum, discipline, school inspections and teaching resources.

Get into teaching
Curriculum and qualifications
Behaviour and discipline in schools
Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted)
The Education Endowment Foundation – a charity gathering international evidence on teaching 5 to 16-year-olds
Times Educational Supplement (TES) – information and resources for teachers
Oak National Academy – video lessons and accompanying resources in a broad range of subjects for Reception (age 4) up to Year 11 (age 16), including specialist content for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Teach in England if you qualified outside the UK

Find out about the visa and immigration routes, qualifications and help available for overseas teachers who trained outside the UK.

Applies to England

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