How Do I Get Into Teaching? A Step-By-Step Guide

If you keep asking yourself how do I get into teaching, you are already at an important turning point. You want work that feels meaningful and people focused, and teaching is one of the clearest ways to get that. What you need now is a realistic path from where you are today to standing in front of a class. This article stays focused on the essentials: the qualifications you need, the main routes into teaching, and the practical steps that move you from thinking about teaching to actually training.

Check Your Starting Qualifications

Before you look at courses or training providers, it helps to know whether you already meet the usual entry requirements. Most routes into teaching expect you to have a finished degree or be working towards a bachelor’s degree, plus solid school-level qualifications in English and maths, and sometimes science. If you are missing one of these, that does not mean the end of the road. In many places you can sit equivalency tests or take a bridging or access course that gets you ready for degree-level study.

At this stage the key questions are simple. Do you already have, or are you prepared to work towards, a degree? Are your basic school-level qualifications strong enough, or do you need to plug any gaps first? Once you can answer those honestly, the question “how do I get into teaching?” becomes a lot easier to break down.

Choose A Training Route That Fits You

There is more than one way into teaching, and the best route depends on where you are starting from and what your life looks like right now. If you already have a degree, the most direct option is postgraduate teacher training. This usually means a one-year or two-year programme where you split your time between working in schools and attending training sessions. Some routes are led mainly by universities, with long school placements. Others are school-based from day one, with training woven around your time in the classroom. University-led routes often give you a little more breathing space to build confidence, while school-based routes immerse you in classroom life earlier, with support around you.

If you do not have a degree yet, you still have clear options. You can study a degree that includes teacher training and leads to a recognised teaching qualification, or take a subject degree you enjoy and add teacher training afterwards. In some areas there are also earn-while-you-learn or apprenticeship-style routes, where you work in a school while studying for both a degree and a teaching qualification at the same time. The common thread is that getting into teaching almost always involves reaching degree-level study in some form, even if you combine it with work.

Common Routes Into Teaching

Undergraduate teacher training with QTS.
Postgraduate teacher training after a degree.
School-based training routes.
Apprenticeship or salaried pathways in some settings.

Understand The Application Process

Once you have chosen a route, the next part of “how I get into teaching” is the application itself. Most teacher training applications will ask for your academic history, any current study, and details of relevant work or volunteering. You will also be asked for one or more references from people who can vouch for you, and a personal statement that explains why you want to teach.

The personal statement is where you move beyond saying you like working with people and show that you understand what teaching actually involves. Drawing on real experiences makes a huge difference. You might reflect on supporting a youth group, helping in a classroom, mentoring younger learners, or working in another people-facing role. The aim is not to sound perfect but to show that you are thoughtful, realistic and committed.

What Your Application Usually Includes

Your academic history and qualifications.
Details of relevant work, volunteering, or classroom experience.
References.
A personal statement explaining your motivation and suitability.

Training to teach is a big investment of time and money, so it is natural to wonder how you can get into teaching without putting yourself under too much financial strain. Depending on your route and where you are based, you may be able to access student loans for tuition, maintenance loans or grants for living costs, bursaries or scholarships for particular subjects, and salaried or apprenticeship routes where you are paid while you train.

Before you commit, it helps to sketch out how long your training will take, what your likely income will be during that time, and what support you can rely on, whether that is loans, savings, partner income or something else. A simple, honest budget turns a vague worry into a practical plan and can stop money questions from derailing your goal later.

Spend Time In A Real Classroom

You can read plenty of guides, but nothing answers how I get into teaching and know if it is for you better than spending time in a real classroom. Seeing the job from the teacher’s side, rather than remembering it from your own school days, is eye-opening.

There are lots of ways to do this. You might volunteer in a local school, help with homework or revision clubs, work as a teaching assistant or learning support assistant, or take on a cover supervisor role. Even a short spell of classroom experience will help you see how lessons run, how behaviour is managed, how fast-paced the day can be, and how it feels to work with groups of children or teenagers for several hours at a time. It also gives you concrete examples to talk about in your teacher training applications and interviews.

Ways To Build Classroom Experience

Volunteer in a local school.
Help with homework clubs or revision sessions.
Work as a teaching assistant or learning support assistant.
Take on a cover supervisor role.

Complete Your Teacher Training

Once you are on a training programme, your focus shifts from “how do I get into teaching” to “how do I become a good teacher?” Training is both practical and reflective. You will spend most of your time in one or more schools, planning and delivering lessons under supervision, marking work, assessing progress and learning how to handle behaviour, safeguarding and different learning needs. Alongside that, you will attend training sessions on curriculum, assessment and effective teaching approaches.

You will be observed regularly and receive feedback from mentors and tutors, and you will build a portfolio of evidence to show that you meet the required teaching standards. It is demanding, because you are learning a new profession while practising it in real time, but it is also the stage where you see your skills and confidence grow fastest.

What Teacher Training Usually Involves

School placements.
Planning and teaching lessons.
Marking and assessment.
Feedback from mentors and tutors.
Learning about safeguarding, behaviour, and different pupil needs.

Once you have completed your training and gained your teaching qualification, you can start applying for teaching posts. Your first role may be full-time or part-time, permanent or fixed-term, but in each case you will be taking full responsibility for classes and joining a wider staff team.

In that first year, you will keep developing. You will learn how to pace yourself, how to refine your classroom routines, and how to balance planning, teaching and the rest of your life. Over time, your career might move into subject leadership, pastoral roles, mentoring others or curriculum work, but the important step is the one you are focused on now: moving from wanting to teach to actually doing it.

Ready To Take The Next Step With Senploy?

Understanding how to get into teaching is one thing. Working out where you want to use that qualification is the next. That is where Senploy can help.

By browsing current roles on Senploy, you can see what real schools and settings are looking for right now, including teaching and support roles that focus on children and young people with additional needs. This gives you a grounded sense of what experience and skills employers really value, where opportunities are strongest in your area, and how teaching, classroom support and SEND roles connect in practice.