Drafting your application

What goes into an ITT application?

There are a few key parts to your application:

1. Your personal details
2. Your work history and experience
3. Your qualifications
4. Your personal statement
5. Your references

Click on one of the topics above or read on to find out what we are looking for in each section.

1) Your personal details

Be sure to fill in all your details accurately, particularly your contact details. All alerts from the portal and initial contact from us including invitations to interview will come via the email address you enter. It is therefore crucial that the address is input accurately and that you check that inbox regularly otherwise you may miss key information and deadlines. If you have changed name for any reason, we may need to see proof of any changes e.g. deed poll, marriage certificate. Please enter course details accurately. A full list of our courses and codes can be found here.

2) Your work history and experience

Here you should fill in all details of your career to date, including any voluntary work you have done. Be sure to indicate if your jobs have required you to use skills transferable to teaching and/or if they involved work with children. If there are breaks in your list of jobs, even if you were studying during this time, the system will flag these up for us to check at interview as part of our safer recruitment procedures. Please give all necessary information to explain any such gaps. It is not essential to have classroom experience, although if you are able to complete some observation at the very least, this would be useful. Experience of working with children in any capacity is of great benefit, so be sure to include this if you have done it. If you don’t have this experience, we can discuss at interview how this might be arranged.

3) Your qualifications

The minimum requirements for our courses can be found on the relevant course page (normally an honours degree at 2:2 or above and GCSEs at 4/C or above in English and maths. Primary applicants will also need GCSE science at 4/C or above). If your qualifications are from outside the UK, you will need to obtain ENIC certification of their equivalences within the UK.

4) Your personal statement

We are looking for a number of things in your personal statement:

• A good standard of written English.
• Your rationale for teaching and motivation for the profession.
• An explanation for your chosen age phase/subject and why you are particularly suited for this.
• Any experiences of working with young people and what you have learnt from these.
• Any transferrable skills that you can bring to the teaching profession, for example communication skills, team-working, management and creativity.

5) Your references

You will be asked to supply two referees to support your application. It is always helpful to have one academic and one personal/professional reference. It is good practice to contact your referees before putting them forward so that they are in agreement to provide a reference and so they know what to expect. We will check references and may ask for additional references if those supplied do not provide the necessary information.