Employers

Supporting Teachers Obligations and Compliance under the ACT Teacher Quality Institute Act

The ACT Teacher Quality Institute works hard to support teachers to comply with the requirements and professional responsibilities to maintain teacher registration in the ACT.  Employers also play a role in supporting teachers and ensuring only registered and approved teachers are working within ACT schools. Please note for teachers working in ECEC services registration is not mandatory.

Employers must also meet the obligations detailed within the ACT Teacher Quality Institute Act (2010).  The Employers Obligations factsheet assists employers understand and comply with the obligations and notification requirements.

The Requirements and Responsibilities to Maintain TQI Registration Information Sheet outlines the requirements of all teachers to maintain registration.  Employers can support compliance with the requirement by:

  • reminding teachers to log on, and submit their renewal and pay the fee in term 1 each year
  • reminding teachers to update their employment record within the TQI portal
  • reaching out to your teachers who are on extended leave or other absences to see if they have met the requirements for registration
  • reminding teachers of the requirement to provide TQI with evidence of current Working With Vulnerable People registration
  • reminding teachers of professional learning requirements
  • verifying teacher professional learning within the TQI portal

Information about the professional learning framework and the verification of professional learning assists workplace delegates and employers understand these important aspects of professional registration.

Monitoring Registration Renewal

In the ACT, teachers hold registration for 12 months, renewing that registration by 31 March on an annual basis. The Registration Renewals Checklist is a step-by-step guide for leading a teaching workforce through registration renewal

Workplace Leaders play a vital role in monitoring the registration status of teachers within their workplace.  The Managing your Teaching Staff within the TQI Portal Information Sheet shows workplace leaders how to access the registration report, how to read it and how to understand the information provided.

Workplace delegates also have access to an Online Register of Approved Teachers which can be used to verify the registration status of a current or prospective teacher.  The register is accessed within the TQI Portal under the delegate functions tab.

Supporting Progression through the Career Stages

There are four career stages within the Standards. These stages reflect the continuum of a teacher’s developing expertise. These are Graduate, Proficient, Highly Accomplished, and Lead.

Graduate career stage

Graduate teachers have completed a qualification that meets the requirements of a nationally accredited program of initial teacher education. The award of this qualification confirms the Standards at the graduate career stage have been demonstrated.

Proficient career stage

Teachers meet the requirements for full registration through demonstrating achievement at the Proficient level of the Standards.

Highly Accomplished career stage

Highly Accomplished teachers are recognised as highly effective, skilled classroom practitioners and routinely work independently and collaboratively to improve their own practice and the practice of colleagues.

Lead career stage

Lead teachers are recognised and respected by colleagues, parents/carers and the community as exemplary teachers. They have demonstrated consistent and innovative teaching practice over time. Inside and outside the workplace, they initiate and lead activities that focus on improving educational opportunities for all learners.

Movement through each career stage is an evidence-based process, with teachers developing, curating and presenting a portfolio of professional practice.

The supporting material for teachers moving from provisional to full registration includes:

Questions about registration renewal and/or moving from provisional to full registration should be directed to the Senior Director Professional Standards and Registration on tqi@act.gov.au or 62075005.

To be eligible to apply for certification at the Highly Accomplished or Lead teacher career stage the applicant must be an Australian citizen or have permanent residency and hold full registration with TQI. Applicants must have satisfactory performance confirmed by their employer for the previous two years for Highly Accomplished and three years for Lead.

The supporting material for teachers moving to the later career stages of Highly Accomplished and lead includes:

Questions about Certification as Highly Accomplished or Lead should be directed to the Director Professional Standards and Recognition on tqi@act.gov.au or 62075005.

Employer Notifications and Obligations

Under sections 29, 67 and 70 of the ACT Teacher Quality Institute Act 2010, employers have obligations to make notifications to TQI. The Employers Obligations factsheet helps school leaders to understand when and how to make a notification.

Section 29

It is an offence to employ, engage or allow a person who is not an approved teacher to teach in a school.

Section 67

The employer of an approved teacher must tell TQI, in writing, if the employer has reasonable grounds for believing any of the following has happened:

  • The teacher has become mentally or physically incapacitated and the incapacity prevents the person from performing an inherent requirement of their job as a teacher;
  • The teacher is given a negative notice under the Working with Vulnerable People (Background Checking) Act 2011 (WWVP), section 40;
  • The teacher’s WWVP registration: is made subject to a condition or interim condition; or, is suspended; or, has ended.

Section 70

The employer must notify TQI within five working days of a notification event.

Notification Event

A notification event means any of the following:

  • the employer of an approved teacher tells the teacher that the employer has decided to begin a formal investigation
  • the employer takes disciplinary action against the teacher under the terms of the teacher’s employment
  • the employer removes, cancels or ends the access of the teacher to casual employment
  • an approved teacher, who is the subject of a formal investigation or preliminary factual inquiry by the employer, resigns.

Employers must use the notification forms below to notify TQI of any of the above events.

Under section 67 of the ACT Teacher Quality Institute Act 2010, the employer of an approved teacher must tell TQI in writing if:

  • the teacher has become mentally or physically incapacitated and the incapacity prevents the person from performing an inherent requirement of their job as a teacher;
  • the teacher is given a negative notice under the Working With Vulnerable People (Background Checking) Act 2011, section 40
  • the teacher’s working with vulnerable people registration –
    • is made subject to a condition or interim condition; or
    • is suspended, or
    • has ended.

Under section 70B of the ACT Teacher Quality Institute Act 2010, the employer of an approved teacher must tell TQI in writing, within 5 working days after the event, of any of the following:

  • the employer has decided to begin a formal investigation of the teacher;
  • the employer takes disciplinary action against the teacher under the terms of the teacher’s employment;
  • the employer removes, cancels or ends the access of the teacher to casual employment;
  • an approved teacher, who is the subject of a formal investigation or preliminary factual inquiry by the employer, resigns.

TQI Code of Professional Practice and Conduct for ACT Teachers

Under section 38 (1) of the ACT Teacher Quality Institute Act 2010, it is a condition of registration that a teacher's professional practice is at all times consistent with the Code. Read the code here or download a copy

Authority to employ someone who is not a registered teacher

Permit to Teach

TQI may grant an authorisation to an employer to employ or engage an unregistered person to work as a teacher for a specific period through a Permit to teach (PTT). PTT is not a registration category.  It is an approval to teach in ACT.  These may, under some circumstances, and only if TQI is satisfied it is appropriate to do so, be approved under S34 of the ACT Teacher Quality institute Act.

Permits to teach can only be requested by an employer and must demonstrate one of the following:

  • They have a teaching position they are unable to fill with a suitably registered teacher and the candidate has specialist knowledge, training, skills or qualifications;

or

  • The candidate is a pre-service teacher:
    • in the final year of their accredited initial teacher education program and has been identified as eligible to participate in school-based employment under specific circumstances; or
    • in the final semester of their accredited initial teacher education program and has completed all required professional experience placements.

The intent of issuing employers with a Permit to Teach is to provide approval for employers to recruit people to teach in hard-to-fill or specialised teaching roles. TQI must be satisfied that the person is competent and fit and proper before a permission is granted. An application for a Permit to Teach can only be submitted through a link provided in an email from TQI once a request has been received from an employer.

People employed as support staff (including, for example, teachers’ aides, teachers’ assistants, student teachers and unpaid volunteers) are not employed under a Permit to Teach.

TQI's Teacher Registration and Permit to Teach Policy outlines the framework for the registration and permit to teach requirements of TQI under the ACT Teacher Quality Institute Act (2010).

Further information can be found in the Permit to Teach Checklist and the Permit to teach ITE Agreements Checklist