How to become a teacher of adults in the UK, and the qualification that starts it

Most people who end up teaching adults did not set out to. They were good at the job, someone asked them to show a new starter how it worked, and a few years later they were running the training. At some point a college, a training provider or an employer asks what qualification they hold, and the answer matters.

The Level 3 Award in Education and Training is the usual answer. It is the recognised first teaching qualification in the United Kingdom, and it is the one most job adverts mean when they ask for a teaching qualification at Level 3.

What the qualification actually is

It is a regulated qualification on the Regulated Qualifications Framework, awarded by NCFE, and it carries the Ofqual number 601/1620/1. You can look that number up on the Ofqual register, and you should, for this or any other course you are asked to pay for. Our qualification checker will take you straight there.

It is an Award rather than a Certificate or a Diploma, which tells you something about its size. It carries 48 guided learning hours and 120 total qualification time, so it is a serious piece of work rather than a weekend course, but it is not a year of study either.

Who it is for

Anyone who teaches or trains adults, or wants to. That covers further education lecturers, workplace trainers, tutors, assessors moving into teaching, and people who deliver training as part of a job that is not called teaching. It is the qualification the sector recognises as the starting point.

You must be 19 or over at the start of the course. There are no formal entry qualifications beyond that.

The part that catches people out

The Award is assessed partly through a microteach: a short session you plan, deliver and then reflect on. This is where a lot of people hesitate, because they assume it means finding a real class, a real employer and a real group of learners before they can start.

It does not. The microteach is a short session, and no teaching post or workplace is required to complete the qualification. That is the single most useful thing to know about it, because it is the reason someone who is not yet teaching can hold the qualification before they apply for the job that needs it, rather than after.

How the rest is assessed

Portfolio, marked by our assessors and quality assured by NCFE. There is no written examination. You build evidence as you work through the units, which suits people fitting study around a job, and it means the assessment looks like the work rather than like a test.

How long it takes, and what it costs

It is studied entirely online at your own pace, with no fixed deadlines and no timetable. The 48 guided learning hours are a guide to the taught content rather than a countdown; people who study in the evenings typically take a few months, and people with more time take less.

The fee is 495 pounds. That is the fee for the qualification, and the course page carries the current figure alongside the entry requirements.

Where it leads

The Award is the first of three levels of teaching qualification. It is enough for many training roles on its own, and it is the entry point if you go further. If you are moving towards assessing rather than teaching, the assessing route is a different qualification and worth looking at separately.

What you study, unit by unit

The Award has three units, and together they carry the 48 guided learning hours. The hours are listed against each because they tell you where the weight of the qualification sits, which is not where most people assume.

Unit 1: roles, responsibilities and relationships (12 hours)

What a teacher of adults is actually responsible for, and where that responsibility stops. The unit covers the legislation and codes of practice that apply to the role, how to promote equality and value diversity in a group of adults who did not choose each other, why identifying individual needs matters before a session rather than during it, and where the teaching role ends and another professional's begins. The referral question, when a learner needs something you are not qualified to give, is one of the criteria, and it is the one experienced trainers most often say they wish they had learned earlier.

Unit 2: inclusive teaching and learning (24 hours)

Half the qualification, and the unit the microteach belongs to. You compare the strengths and limitations of the teaching approaches used in your own subject, plan a session that meets the needs of the people in it, deliver it, and then evaluate what happened against what you planned. It also covers ground rules, motivation, and why every session should give learners a chance to use their English, maths and digital skills whatever the subject is.

The delivery is the microteach. It is short, it is to a small group, and it does not require a class of your own or an employer's permission. What it does require is a plan you can defend and a reflection that is honest about what did not work, because that reflection is assessed too.

Unit 5: assessment (12 hours)

How you know whether anyone learned anything. Types and methods of assessment and how to choose between them, how to involve the learners themselves and others in assessing, how to give constructive feedback a learner can act on, and the record keeping that lets somebody else see what you decided and why. This is the unit that separates a person who delivers training from a person who can evidence that it worked.

How the hours break down

Forty-eight guided learning hours is the taught content. The total qualification time of 120 hours is the honest estimate including your own reading, the planning for the microteach, and the writing up. Studied in the evenings around a job, most people find that is a few months. Nothing in the qualification imposes a deadline, so the figure is a planning aid rather than a term you are enrolled for.

How it compares with the other teaching qualifications

Three regulated qualifications sit in a line: this Award at Level 3, the Certificate in Education and Training at Level 4, and the Diploma at Level 5. The Award is the one that needs no teaching post. The Certificate and Diploma both require you to be teaching, with observed practice hours, which is why people take them once they are in a role rather than to get one.

If your work is assessing rather than teaching, the assessor qualifications are a separate route and the Award is not a substitute for them. The two are often held together, and a job advert will usually say which it wants.

Common questions

Is this the same as the old PTLLS?

It is the qualification that replaced it. If a job advert mentions PTLLS, the Level 3 Award in Education and Training is what they now mean.

Do I need to be employed as a teacher to take it?

No. That is the point of the microteach: no teaching post or workplace is required.

Is it recognised outside further education?

It is widely used by employers for workplace training roles as well as by colleges and training providers, because it is regulated and sits at a known level.

Can I study it while working full time?

Yes. It is self-paced and online, with no fixed deadlines.

The Level 3 Award in Education and Training is open for enrolment now. If you want to check anything on this page before you commit, the qualification number is 601/1620/1 and the register is public.