Version 1.0 - Last Updated: 12 Jun 2024
Creating courses
Creating an initial teacher training (ITT) course
Eligibility
Full-time students on initial teacher training (ITT) courses can get the full-time package of support. Part-time students can get the Part-time Tuition Fee Loan. If the part-time course is a level 6 or 7, students are also eligible for a Part-time Maintenance Loan.
You can find out more about the eligibility of ITT courses in the 'Assessing eligibility guidance' chapters on the SFE Practitioners website.
Adding an initial teacher training (ITT) course
You must select the correct qualification for your course. The available qualifications for ITT courses are:
- Bachelor's degree with qualified teacher status (QTS)
- Bachelor's degree with honours with QTS
- Certificate in Education
- Postgraduate Certificate in Education
- Professional Graduate Certificate in Education
- Postgraduate ITT with QTS
As of academic year 2020/21, any course with a Postgraduate ITT with QTS qualification should have been phased out. Only School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) providers or providers offering QTS only courses should still use this qualification. ITT courses should use one of the qualifications listed above that fits the qualification students receive at the end of their course.
School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT)
If you're a School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) provider, you can use the Postgraduate ITT with QTS courses. However, if one of the new qualifications is a better match for the qualification your students receive, you should use that instead.
When you save your courses, you must add 'unsalaried' as a suffix to the title. This will stop our assessment team requesting evidence from students to confirm that their course is not salaried. If the course title does not have this suffix, we'll ask students to present evidence. This could delay their application.
International Qualified Teacher Status (iQTS) courses
iQTS courses are currently eligible for funding for Northern Irish students at certain providers, when the course awards a full Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) along with iQTS, and is studied in the UK. Additionally, students must undertake their placements in Northern Ireland to be eligible for funding for them.
They are not currently eligible for students from other domiciles.
When adding these courses to CMS, the course title must include ‘iQTS’ to ensure these courses are easily identified. The qualification selected should be PGCE.
They must only be added to CMS for Northern Irish students with no other domiciles selected. To do this, you must deselect the other domiciles in the ‘designation’ section when entering the course details:
It is your responsibility to ensure that you only add courses that meet the criteria, iQTS with PGCE, to CMS for Northern Irish students.
School Direct Training Programmes
Courses under the School Direct training programme can be salaried or unsalaried. Only students on the unsalaried route, or those in a voluntary role, are eligible for student finance.
If all students on a School Direct training programme course are unsalaried you must add 'unsalaried' as a suffix to the title. However, if some of the students are salaried and some are in unsalaried or voluntary roles, you should add the course to CMS without unsalaried in the title. This will ensure the assessment team will request the relevant evidence. You should tell any students receiving a salary not to apply for student finance for these courses.
If all students on your School Direct training programme are receiving a salary, you should not add the course to CMS.
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