The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) released a set of aspirational standards in May 2014. The Professional Standards provide a framework for teachers and trainers to critically appraise their own practice and improve their teaching through Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

Almost 1,000 sector professionals were involved in the development of the standards to ensure they accurately reflected practitioners needs. 

The 2014 Professional Standards:

• set out clear expectations of effective practice in education and training;
• enable teachers and trainers to identify areas for their own professional development;
• support initial teacher education; and,
• provide a national reference point that organisations can use to support the development of their staff.

Download your copy of the Professional Standards.

Professional Standards Research Map

To gain Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) status, you need to be able to demonstrate how you are continuing to develop your pedagogical skills and subject specialist knowledge in relation to the relevant professional standards. Some of that knowledge will be drawn from research and other formal evidence.

This Professional Standards Research Map is a tool designed to give you quick and straightforward access to a good selection of relevant knowledge from relevant research. It does this by aligning the resources to the twenty Professional Standards and offering a range of resources, from short, bite-sized summaries to more in-depth research reports.

You can choose which you use on the basis of how much depth you want to go into, and how much time you have available. The map works on desktop/laptop platforms and mobile devices. 

Download the Professional Standards Research map.

Professional Standards Self-Assessment Tool

An online Self-Assessment tool is available on the Foundation Online Learning site that provides a simple, quick and effective way to understand how well you currently perform against the standards.