Training options

To qualify as a geography teacher in England, you need to have Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). You gain this through either undergraduate or postgraduate study.

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Primary undergraduate training

If you want to become a primary teacher you can:

Complete a three-year BA or BEd degree with QTS. Most commonly, you choose to train to teach 3–7-year-olds or 5–11-year-olds. This degree qualifies you to be a primary teacher where you will teach across the full subject range in a primary school.
Follow with a Teacher Degree Apprenticeship. These allow you to train to teach while earning a salary and gaining a degree qualification. You work in a school while studying for a degree. Further information can be found here.

A few universities offer modules in Specialist Subject Studies that allow study of geography teaching in greater depth and help to prepare you to become a geography leader within an early years setting or primary school. Find details of geography specialism studies on university websites.

Postgraduate routes into teaching

To teach either primary or secondary pupils, you complete a course of postgraduate teacher training. To teach secondary geography you should have a degree related to geography – ideally it should have the word ‘geography’ in the title.

There are several postgraduate training routes available, but all spend time in schools to develop your teaching skills and build your confidence. Most courses are fee-funded but there are often tax-free bursaries available. See Bursaries and scholarships for postgraduate teacher training.

Training courses are nine months full-time, or up to two years part-time. Most start in September and combine theoretical learning with classroom placements in at least two contrasting schools. During your course, you will get the experience and knowledge you need to gain qualified teacher status (QTS). On some courses, you can combine QTS with an academic qualification such as a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE). There is more information about this below.

There is also postgraduate salaried teacher training where you are paid as an unqualified teacher as you train. You will still do some theoretical learning, but most of your time will be spent in school and teaching in the classroom. Salaried routes are in high demand, and training providers may want you to have significant teaching or school experience, e.g. as a teaching assistant.

Postgraduate salaried routes include:

school-based salaried courses
postgraduate teaching apprenticeships (PGTA)
Teach First teacher.

Check with individual ITE providers to find out if they have a salaried scheme available and how it operates. See Postgraduate salaried teacher training for further information.

Bursary amounts for geography training vary between different academic years, but if you are eligible for a high bursary, you could receive more money on a non-salaried course than on a salaried one. This depends on your personal circumstances.

Who provides the training?

Postgraduate teacher training courses are provided by universities, schools or a company/ charity. Providers are ‘accredited’, which means they have been approved by the Department for Education (DfE) to run teacher training courses.

Non-accredited providers can run courses if they are in a partnership with an organisation that is accredited. Schools run courses with a university/company as their ‘accredited provider’ or as part of an accredited SCITT consortium.

Primary or secondary training – which should I choose?

Primary courses usually specialise in age ranges 3–7 or 5–11, but this can vary between courses. Secondary courses prepare you to teach students aged either 11-16 or 11-18.

As a primary teacher you will be expected to teach all subjects to your chosen age-range, not just geography. As a secondary teacher you will specialise in teaching geography and make greater use of your subject specialist knowledge.

Ask yourself, which you would prefer? Then consider whether you want to teach younger children, or teenagers and young adults. Visit some schools and get experience with different age-ranges before you make up your mind.

Qualifications

Qualified Teacher status (QTS) is a professional accreditation demonstrating that a teacher has met the required standards in teaching competency, subject knowledge, and classroom management. All accredited teacher training courses in England and Wales lead to QTS. It is not age-specific, although training programmes typically focus on particular age-ranges.

QTS is a legal requirement to teach in maintained schools. While it is not yet mandatory in academies and free schools, proposed legislation includes measures to extend the QTS requirement to all state schools from September 2026.

Private and independent schools can employ teachers without QTS; however, many prefer it as an indicator of high professional standards. Not having QTS can limit your career progression.

International qualified teacher status (iQTS) is a teaching qualification for those overseas. The Department for Education (DfE) recognises iQTS as equivalent to QTS.

Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) is a professional status primarily designed for Further Education (FE). Legally it is equivalent to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).

What is the difference between QTS and a PGCE?

QTS is a professional status to teach, whereas the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) or the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) are academic qualifications. These are usually undertaken alongside QTS as part of initial teacher training.

Schools often prefer to appoint teachers with a PGCE/PGDE qualification because these qualifications develop professional knowledge, understanding and judgement through academic study and written assignments. They are also valuable if you wish to teach internationally, as many countries and international schools require a university-accredited postgraduate qualification.

Both the PGCE and PGDE are level 7 qualifications that carry credits towards a master’s degree. The number of credits varies between universities, and you should check the terms and transferability with the universities concerned.

The Professional Graduate Certificate in Education is a level 6 qualification awarded in alongside QTS. It does not carry masters credits. Because it shares the same abbreviation (PGCE), some institutions call it the ProfGradCE.

To find out more about what a PGCE involves see Working towards PGCE and Masters qualifications.

University-led training

Universities have a long-established tradition of training new teachers. All training providers are regulated by DfE and required to provide a minimum of 120 days observing and teaching in schools across the training year. Universities work with a group of partner schools. A university geography tutor will lead your training, and you will probably be part of a small group of geography trainees. This lets you share experiences with other geographers and find out how geography is taught in different schools.

All university-led training offers an additional academic qualification alongside QTS.

School-led training

These are initial teacher training (ITT) programmes where you will be based in a school for almost all the time. The theoretical part of the training might be delivered at another site, such as a university or another school.

There are several types of providers who run school-led training:

A SCITT (school-centred initial teacher training) is a school, or a group of schools, who design and run school-led programmes. They generally work within a local area. Many have years of experience of organising teacher training, but there has been a recent expansion, so some are quite new. Most of the training takes place in one school with further placements in other schools within the SCITT consortium. In addition to QTS, most school-led schemes also offer a PGCE validated by a university. Check with individual SCITT providers to find out how each scheme operates and what qualifications they offer.
Large regional and national organisations also run school-based teacher training courses. These can be educational companies, multi-academy trusts, teaching school hubs or charitable organisations. They run central programmes with locally delivered training in schools. The lead organisation holds ITT accreditation and designs and manages the training, working with the schools in which trainees spend most of their time. These providers may use face-to-face and/or online training. You should check with individual regional and national providers to find out how each scheme operates.
Teach First runs a two-year programme in schools in areas of educational disadvantage. This scheme is described as a leadership training programme and trainees earn a salary. Trainees work towards QTS with a PGCE and they continue as an ECT (Early Career Teacher) in the same school.

You can find more information and apply for geography courses on the DfE Get Into Teaching website.

Is it better to be trained by a school or a university?

Firstly, there is not as great a difference as you might think! All teacher training courses today must meet the Government’s requirements for time spent in schools. This is at least 24 weeks in schools whatever route you choose. It is a myth that if you follow a university course you will spend a lot of time sitting in lectures! Both university-led courses and school-based courses have training sessions, some of which may be online.

All training courses must meet the DfE criteria for initial teacher education and train you to meet Teachers’ Standards. All courses are inspected by Ofsted.

All geography training includes practical teaching where you are observed and receive feedback and guidance. The training is likely to include a combination of taught sessions, seminars, workshops, tasks and assignments and engagement with academic/professional research.

University-led training means you spend some of your time learning in the university, where you have access to a tutor who is an expert in geography teaching. Days spent with other geographers at the university give you time to reflect, together with your geography tutor, on different school experiences and you share ideas and compare approaches with your fellow geography trainees. This is often greatly valued by those in training.

Your university tutor arranges contrasting school placements for you that best meet your needs, and they visit to support you in school. If a placement is not suited to you, there may be the possibility to move schools.

School-led training immerses you in school life from the start – which is sometimes described as ‘in at the deep end’! You will, of course, be supported by your geography mentor and other teachers in the school. Some school-led schemes have a geography leader, who acts in a similar role to a university tutor. They may run sessions for you and any other geography trainees, but you may spend much of your training alongside trainee teachers in other subjects.

Every scheme is different, so generalisations are difficult. It is very important that you find out the details of the type of geography training you can expect before you start.

Other routes

There are also special routes available, e.g. for former armed services personnel and researchers who have completed a doctorate. There is also an ‘assessment only’ route to QTS designed for those who have significant experience of working as an unqualified teacher.

How can I find out what a training course is really like?

Find out as much as you can from the provider’s website. Ofsted publishes reports after inspections and these are available for you to read on the Ofsted website, listed for each provider. However, these reports are about the training programmes generally, and not specifically about the geography training.

If you get an opportunity to talk to those who have completed the training at a provider, this can be very informative. Some providers give you the opportunity to meet current trainees on interview days.

How can I choose between so many training providers?

Avoid being attracted to a training provider just because the location is convenient! It is, of course, easier to undertake training near to home, but make sure that good geography training is being offered.

The quality of the school, and in particular the geography department where you will be trained, is very important. Ask how placement schools are selected to ensure they will give you good training. If you are going to be spending most of your time in one school, find out about that school and ask to visit and meet the mentor before you start. Perhaps the school holds a Geography Quality Mark in recognition of the high quality of geography teaching there?

Find out how many geography trainees will be following the course. Then decide whether you would be happy if you were the sole geography trainee, or would you prefer to be training alongside others.

If you are applying for a salaried route, find out what the balance is between training and teaching.

Enquire about the qualifications the course offers on successful completion.

Further information and bursaries

To find out more about all routes, where to train, applying for courses, bursaries and funding go to the DfE website Get Into Teaching.

Register at DfE Get into Teaching website. Geography is often classed as a shortage subject, so if you’re a graduate and looking to teach secondary geography in England you can access school experience and obtain personalised support when you register.

For those wishing to become a teacher in Further Education (not schools) the Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) qualification caters for the Post-16 education and training sector. This includes colleges, adult education centres, and other institutions offering training beyond secondary school. Many colleges will help you undertake an apprenticeship or teaching qualification while you work as a teacher. Find out more about teaching in Further Education at DfE Teach in further education.

There are specialist Early Years Initial Teacher Training courses for those seeking to work with children up to five years old.