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The Qualified Teacher badge

Last updated: 2026-06-07

Some tutors on Tutorperch carry a Qualified Teacher badge. It marks tutors whose teaching qualification our team has reviewed and verified against the certificate they provided. This page lists exactly which qualifications earn it, and why.

We verify qualifications at two levels. The Qualified Teacher badge is the higher mark, for recognised teaching qualifications. Anything else a tutor uploads and we check shows on their profile as a verified qualification, without the badge. The list below is what earns the badge.

UK regulated teacher status

  • QTS, iQTS, QTLS, GTCS, GTCNI, and the Welsh equivalent (registration with the Education Workforce Council).

These are the core. State-regulated, defined national standards, assessed routes. The badge was built around these.

UK initial teacher training

  • BEd, BA/BSc with QTS, PGCE, School Direct, Teach First, SCITT completions.

All involve assessed teaching practice and lead to or constitute QTS in most cases. Where QTS isn't explicitly conferred (some older BEds, some PGCEs), the training standard is equivalent and the certificate is verifiable through the awarding university.

This matters most for teachers trained in the 1990s or earlier. Back then QTS was rarely issued as a separate certificate; completing an approved PGCE, Cert Ed or BEd was itself qualification to teach. So we treat the training certificate as the evidence rather than insisting on a standalone QTS document that may never have existed.

UK educational leadership qualifications

  • NPQH and NPQSL (National Professional Qualifications).

Leadership-focused, but they cover curriculum and pedagogy substantively. You have to already be a teacher to take one, so we don't ask for separate QTS evidence on top.

Postgraduate qualifications

  • MA Education, MEd, PhD in Education, EdD, MPhil in Education, PGCert in Education (standalone), PGDip in Education.

A postgraduate qualification in education demonstrates deeper academic engagement with how and why learning works than any school-based training route requires, and on a tutoring directory, where one-to-one pedagogical skill matters more than classroom certification, that is a legitimate and verifiable teaching credential.

Further and adult education

  • Cert Ed (FE), DTLLS and legacy FE awards, Level 5 Diploma in Education and Training.
  • Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA/SFHEA).
  • Certificate in Education and Training (Level 4 CET).
  • Level 4 Certificate in Assessing Vocational Achievement (CAVA).

The FE sector has its own regulated pathway that doesn't feed into QTS but meets a comparable national standard. QTLS bridges the two. Fellowship of the HEA is an assessed, peer-reviewed, recognised standard for HE teaching, relevant for tutors working at A-level and above. Excluding FE-qualified tutors would cut out a significant pool of legitimate teaching professionals.

Sector-specialist teaching: languages

  • CELTA, Trinity CertTESOL (Level 5), DELTA, Trinity DTESOL, PGCE in ELT.

CELTA and CertTESOL have observed assessed practice, a known awarding body, and verifiable certificates. DELTA and DTESOL are Masters-level equivalent.

Sector-specialist teaching: music and performing arts

  • ABRSM and Trinity teaching diplomas (DipABRSM, LRSM, FRSM in teaching; Trinity LTCL, FTCL), PGCE in Music.

These carry a genuine assessed teaching pathway outside mainstream initial teacher training. It's the teaching-stream diplomas we accept, not the performance-stream ones.

Overseas equivalents

  • State teaching licences from recognised systems.

A qualified teacher from another country holds a genuine professional credential; requiring UK QTS would be an arbitrary barrier. We check the document itself for the official stamping and watermarks the issuing authority uses.

The unifying principle

Every qualification on this list involves assessed teaching practice or substantial study of pedagogy, educational theory and curriculum design; meets a defined national or sector standard; and is verifiable against a known awarding body or institution. Anything that doesn't clear all three is handled by general certificate verification instead: it shows on the profile as a verified qualification, without carrying the Qualified Teacher badge.

What the badge means, and what it doesn't

The badge means our team checked the tutor's teaching qualification against the certificate they provided, and matched it to their identity, at the time of review. It is a one-time check, not a live registration status, and we don't confirm individual results with awarding bodies. The full terms are in our terms of service.

Useful references: Qualified teacher status (GOV.UK), the Ofqual Register of Regulated Qualifications, and Check a teacher's record (GOV.UK).