Teacher Quality Institute / Registration

About teacher registration

What is teacher registration?

Teacher registration is the process that ensures teachers in all Australian schools are appropriately qualified and suitable for employment. The requirements for registration apply to all teachers (casual relief, temporary and permanent), whether they are seeking employment in an Independent, Catholic or Public school.

Provisional registration

Most teachers begin with Provisional registration, the category for Graduate entry.

Full registration

Full registration is only granted to experienced teachers. Teachers with Full registration meet the requirements for Provisional registration and can demonstrate they meet additional experience and proficiency requirements at the Proficient level of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.

Permit to teach

A permit to teach is not a category of registration but an authorisation for a person to teach for a limited period in a specific teaching role. A permit to teach may be offered to applicants who do not meet the requirements for Full or Provisional registration but have relevant skills, knowledge and experience for a teaching position where a suitably qualified or registered teacher is not available. This process requires a request to TQI from the school wishing to employ you. Contact TQI for more information.

Who needs to register?

Before teaching in any school in the ACT every teacher MUST apply for, and be granted, registration or a permit to teach. You may apply for either Provisional registration or Full registration, depending on your skills and teaching experience.

Teachers who will be working in both ACT and NSW schools should contact TQI to discuss their registration application and/or their renewal application.

What is required before completing the online application form?

Before you complete the teacher registration online application you must obtain either:

an ACT Working with Vulnerable People (WWVP) general registration. This can be obtained from the ACT Office of Regulatory Services (ORS). (A certified copy of both sides of your WWVP card must be provided as evidence.)

an Australian national police certificate which includes spent convictions and is no more than three months old. (Original document is required.) If you are an ACT resident or an Australian living overseas you can request the police check from the AFP. Applicants living in another state or territory should contact the Criminal Records section of the police service in their state/territory. The national police check application form asks you to nominate the purpose of the check. Choose the 'teacher' option (Code Number 21) to ensure that the correct type of check is undertaken (includes all offences) and under Commonwealth Purpose/Employment choose the option that relates to the 'Care, instruction or supervision of children' (Code Number 37).

Note: Applicants should consider applying initially to the ACT Office of Regulatory Services (ORS) for their background check in preference to providing a national police certificate. If a national police certificate is provided, ORS will still require you to complete the Working with Vulnerable People background check at some time before 7 November 2013.

Do not complete the online application until you have all the required supporting documents ready to post to TQI (including either a certified copy of your ACT Working with Vulnerable People card or a national police certificate which includes spent convictions). A full list of the required supporting documents will be displayed after you have selected the category of registration at the bottom of this page under 'Getting Started'.

Once you have gathered all of the required documentation you are ready to proceed with the online application for teacher registration.

Applications will not be processed:

Unless all of the supporting documents are received including either a certified copy of your ACT Working with Vulnerable People card or an Australian national police check which includes spent convictions; and
Until the application fee is paid

Please do not send partially complete application packages as processing will not commence until all of the required documentation is received by TQI.

Please do not provide information that is not relevant to your registration application. TQI is not a teacher employer so material that relates to job applications such as referee reports are not appropriate.

How long will it take?

If your supporting documentation is complete and the application fee has been received, the registration process will be completed as soon as possible. Please note this may take up to 28 days.

Getting started

Choose one of the options below, read the information carefully and follow the prompts to make sure you are ready to apply for teacher registration. Incomplete applications cannot be assessed by TQI and may result in lengthy delays to your teacher registration approval. Download the 'Process for new applicants' here.

How much will I pay?

Tax deductibe application fee. The TQI registration year is 1 April to 31 March. All registrations and permits to teach are valid to 31 March each year. A tax deductible application fee is payable at the time of application for registration/permit to teach and annually during renewal. The fee structure for initial applications for registration/permit to teach is shown below:

Date on which application is submitted online	Fee payable	Renewal date
Between 1 January and 30 June	$100	31 March of the following year
Between 1 July and 30 September	$75	31 March of the following year
Between 1 October and 31 December	$50	31 March of the following year

Applications will not be processed until the application fee has been paid. An application fee is refundable if TQI does not grant you registration or a permit to teach. You can pay the application fee online, using Visa or MasterCard. You will be prompted to do this at the end of the online application process.