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In your newsletter this month:

Placement requirements before changing trainee’s status for qualified teacher status (QTS) or early years teacher status (EYTS)

The Register trainee teachers service will now check that each trainee’s record includes the minimum number of required placements.

Accredited initial teacher training (ITT) providers can only change a trainee’s status for qualified teacher status (QTS) or early years teacher status (EYTS) once this requirement has been met.

Find out about the changes to the placement requirements before changing a trainee’s status for QTS or EYTS.

Let us know a trainee has gained qualified teacher status (QTS) or early years teacher status (EYTS)

School-Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITTs) and Higher Education Institution (HEIs) should inform us as soon as a trainee has gained qualified teacher status (QTS) or early years teacher status (EYTS). It’s important that successful trainees are informed promptly when they hold QTS or EYTS. This will help them to progress to the next stage of their teaching career without delay.

Trainees who gain QTS or EYTS by 31 July 2026 will be included in our official statistics as trainees gaining QTS in the 2025/26 academic year.

If a trainee’s record needs to be updated before their status is changed, it can be edited in Register. Once a trainee has gained QTS or EYTS, their record can no longer be changed.

ITT Reforms Evaluation Wave 2

Thank you to everyone who participated in Wave 1 of the ITT Reforms Evaluation. This independent evaluation, carried out by Alma Economics, is assessing whether the reforms have been implemented as intended, whether they’ve achieved their goals, and identifying any other impacts, over a three-year period.

In September, researchers from Alma Economics will be contacting ITT providers, training partners, current and former trainees and placement schools, to request they complete the next survey, which will aim to build upon the findings from Wave 1. There will also be an opportunity to take part in further interviews and possible case studies.

Read more about the evaluation contract award details.

Digital services updates: watch the online session recording

Thank you to the more than 250 providers who joined our online session on 7 July 2026. We shared updates to our digital services and our future plans, based on provider feedback.

We would like to clarify that the Department for Education does not provide a list of qualifications that can be considered equivalent to GCSE level in English, Mathematics and Science.

We developed the international qualifications feature to make our data more consistent and support your decision making. It remains an accredited provider’s responsibility to determine the equivalency of qualifications.

When assessing whether a qualification is equivalent to GCSE grade 4, providers should consider not only the level of the qualification, but also the breadth of its content.

You can watch the recording of the digital services updates webinar.

We’re always looking for participants to help us further improve our digital services. If you would like to take part, you can sign up to take part in future user research on DfE ITT recruitment services.

Complete our annual survey

Our annual provider survey aims to collect anonymous feedback from users of the Publish teacher training courses (Publish) and Manage teacher training applications (Manage) services, including API users.
Your feedback is important to us so that we can understand what is working well for you and where improvements need to be made.

Please take 10 minutes to complete our annual survey.