Initial Teacher Training Opportunities in International Schools

COBIS is encouraging high-quality British International Schools to support the development and supply of teachers by engaging with Initial Teacher Training (ITT) routes in an international context. As part of the recent COBIS Teacher Supply Research, responding schools indicated that ITT programmes for local staff and flexible conversion routes to QTS/PGCE would play a key role in boosting teacher supply and retention. COBIS proposed three recommendations as part of that research to support Teacher Supply, both domestically and internationally, one of which was to increase international training opportunities including recruitment overseas into ITT.Internationally recognised teacher training programmes
We are pleased to announce that COBIS and Tes Institute have joined forces to help promote and deliver solutions to support schools with the supply and retention of teachers, with the launch of a new affiliate teacher training scheme for international schools.

COBIS members will now be able to access Tes Institute’s personalised and flexible QTS preparation programme Straight to Teaching, as well as an Assessment Only route to QTS and iPGCE at a discounted affiliate rate; a saving of up to £375 on the cost of Straight to Teaching or £175 for iPGCE. To access the discounted rate, use code COBIS5 when booking.

Tes Institute is the fully-accredited teacher training and development arm of Tes, and has supported around 4,000 teachers on routes to QTS in the UK and globally, combining in-person, online and school-based learning for partner schools.
The School of Education at the University of Buckingham has become one of the leading and largest providers of training for teachers and school leaders. The school offers the full continuum of training for staff and is delighted to be able to offer COBIS members discounted rates for the Preliminary PGCE, International PGCE, Assessment Only Route to QTS and MA in Education.
The ‘life changing’ University of Sunderland has 20,000 students based in campuses in Sunderland, London and Hong Kong and at its global partnerships with learning institutions in 15 countries. We are proud of our long-established commitment to widening participation, our world-leading research, public and private sector collaborations and our track-record for providing quality student experiences resulting in graduates who are the tomorrow-makers of our societies and economies. We are research active, with ten areas of 'world leading’ research - real-world research. Our graduates are sought-after, with 94.2% of our UK undergraduates and 95.8% of our UK postgraduates in employment or in further education within 6 months of graduating.

We have over 100 years’ experience of training teachers and are one of the largest providers of Initial teacher training in the UK in addition to 700 students worldwide. The PGCE Independent Distance Learning (IDL) Education programme is a world leading and internationally recognised teaching qualification which has been running since 2001. It has consistently attracted large cohorts in mainland China and Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Europe, Asia and Africa. The programme blends applied teaching theory and practice in three taught modules and a teaching practice module. The PGCE has been developed to enable it to be delivered to primary, secondary and post-16 teachers and to any subject specialism. It is a 36-week full-time course, completed in one academic year. The programme blends applied teaching theory and practice in three taught modules and one extended assessed teaching practice. The assessed teaching practice is a unique feature of our provision and one which makes it extremely popular with trainee teachers and employers. The PGCE has been developed to enable it to be delivered to primary, secondary and post-16 teachers and to any subject specialism. On the PGCE IDL, two of the modules are research-based and at Masters level, which prepares for further postgraduate study which can be undertaken with us in IDL mode. Many graduates are undertaking this as a further career-enhancing opportunity.