Teaching professionals

How to become a secondary education teaching professional

Official title: Secondary education teaching professionals

Also called: Secondary teacher, Secondary school teacher, Head of physical education, Physical education teacher, Religious education teacher, It teacher, Pe teacher, Re teacher, Deputy head, Head of art, Head of mfl, Art teacher

Secondary (and middle school deemed secondary), and sixth form education teaching professionals plan, organise and provide instruction in one or more subjects, including physical education and diversionary activities, within a prescribed curriculum.

Main tasks

Prepares and delivers courses and lessons in accordance with curriculum requirements and teaches one or more subjects
Prepares, assigns and corrects exercises and examinations to record and evaluate students’ progress
Prepares students for external examinations and administers and invigilates these examinations
Maintains records of students’ progress and development
Supervises any practical work and maintains classroom discipline
Undertakes pastoral duties
Supervises teaching assistants and trainees
Discusses progress with student, parents and/or other education professionals

How to become one

Entry is with a first degree that provides QTS (qualified teacher status) or, in Scotland, TQ (teaching qualification); or other relevant degree followed by further postgraduate training (most commonly PGCE – Postgraduate Certificate in Secondary Education, or, in Scotland, PGDE – Professional Graduate Diploma in Education). Further and higher professional qualifications are required for some teaching posts. A DBS check is mandatory.

Ways in

Apprenticeship (England): Teacher - Postgraduate (level 6). England. Typically 9 months. Skills England standard ST0490.
University: Arts & Humanities degrees, Offered by 27 universities in the UK
University: Education & Teaching degrees, Offered by 25 universities in the UK

Pay · Outlook

Median full-time pay: £47,632 a year The middle half earn £39,059 to £54,047.
About 529,400 people work in this job now, and about 577,200 are projected by 2035. (+9%)

Questions people ask

How do I become a secondary education teaching professional?

How much does a secondary education teaching professional earn in the UK?

Median full-time pay is £47,632 a year (Office for National Statistics). The middle half earn £39,059 to £54,047.

Is a secondary education teaching professional a growing career in the UK?

Yes. Employment is projected to grow 9% by 2035, from about 529,400 to about 577,200 people (Department for Education).

Do you need a degree to become a secondary education teaching professional?

Usually. 95% of people in this job hold a bachelor's degree or higher.

Sources

Office for National Statistics: Annual Population Survey: employment by occupation (April 2025 to March 2026), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
Office for National Statistics: SOC 2020 Volume 1: structure and descriptions (2026-08-27 edition), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
Department for Education: Skills Imperative 2035: employment projections by occupation (2021 to 2035 (Warwick IER / Cambridge Econometrics)), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
Office for National Statistics: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14 (2025 provisional), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03

Updated 2026-10-03

Graduate outcomes: Discover Uni dataset, HESA (www.hesa.ac.uk), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). Aggregated by subject and adapted by Peernovo.