ACT Teacher Registration: The Complete Guide

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Every teacher working in an ACT school — government, Catholic, or independent — must be registered with the ACT Teacher Quality Institute (TQI). The ACT does this differently enough from the larger states that interstate and overseas teachers routinely get caught out. This guide covers TQI's registration categories, fees and renewal, the professional learning hours you need each year, the separate Working with Vulnerable People check, and how to move from provisional to full registration.

1. About TQI registration

The ACT Teacher Quality Institute is the sole authority that grants, renews, and cancels teacher registration in the ACT. It operates under the ACT Teacher Quality Institute Act 2010.

Registration is not sector-specific. Whether you teach in an ACT government school, a Catholic school, or an independent school, you need the same TQI registration. There is no separate credential for each sector.

The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) underpin TQI registration. New teachers are assessed at the Graduate career stage, and experienced teachers at the Proficient career stage. The APST is the same national standard used in every state, but TQI, not AITSL, is the body that makes the ACT registration decision.

Alongside registration, you also need a current Working with Vulnerable People (WWVP) registration, which is a separate check run by a different agency. Both are mandatory and they are easy to confuse. Section 7 explains how they fit together.

2. The registration categories

TQI offers a small number of registration categories. The right one depends on your qualifications and how recently you have taught.

Provisional registration

Provisional registration is for newly qualified teachers, and for experienced teachers who do not have recent experience teaching in a school in Australia or New Zealand. It requires a teaching qualification of at least four years of academic study and meeting the Graduate level of the APST. You can hold provisional registration for a maximum of five years, within which you are expected to progress to full registration.

Full registration

Full registration is for qualified teachers assessed as meeting the Proficient level of the APST. You also need recent practice: 180 days of teaching at an Australian or New Zealand school in the five-year period before you apply. If you are otherwise eligible but do not meet that currency requirement, TQI may grant provisional registration instead.

Permit to Teach

A Permit to Teach is a limited, employer-requested approval, not full registration. It covers final-semester or final-year pre-service teachers, or people with specialist knowledge or skills, where an employer needs to fill a gap. Only an employer can request it; pre-service teachers cannot apply directly.

3. Fees and how to apply

You apply through the TQI online portal: create an account, complete the application, upload colour PDF scans of your documents, and pay the fee. You will need 100 points of identification, your academic transcripts, a statement of teaching service, and your WWVP registration. TQI aims to assess applications within 10 working days, though overseas applications take longer.

The application fee is on a sliding scale depending on when in the school year you apply, because it is pro-rated against the registration year.

If your application is unsuccessful, the fee is refunded. Payment is by credit card, direct debit, or cheque.

4. Renewal and professional learning

The annual cycle

TQI registration runs on the school year. You renew during Term 1, before 31 March each year, pay the annual fee, keep your contact and employment details current, and confirm your professional learning.

Professional learning hours

To renew, you must record and reflect on a minimum of 20 hours of professional learning each school year. The 20 hours have a required split:

• at least 5 hours from TQI-accredited programs
• at least 5 hours from teacher-identified activities
• the remaining 10 hours from any combination of the two

The requirement applies to all registered teachers, including those on leave, casual teachers, and teachers not currently working in the ACT. New registrants get a pro-rata reduction depending on when in the year they registered. All learning must be recorded by the end of the school year.

How this compares to NSW

This catches interstate teachers out, so it is worth being precise. The ACT requires 20 hours every year, logged annually. NSW, by contrast, requires 100 hours per maintenance period, which is five years for full-time teachers and seven years for casual and part-time teachers, with no annual minimum. The total volume over five years is similar, but the cadence is different: the ACT expects an even 20 hours a year with a mandated accredited/teacher-identified split, while NSW lets you bank hours across a multi-year window. If you move from NSW to the ACT, do not assume you can leave your learning to the back end of a five-year cycle.

5. Moving from provisional to full registration

Provisional teachers have five years from the date of first registration to demonstrate they are working at the Proficient level of the APST.

You are supported through this by a Professional Guidance Panel (PGP) in your school. The panel must include the principal or their delegate, a mentor, and a supervisor, and may include others. The panel's job is to help you build and assess your evidence, then make a recommendation to TQI.

The evidence requirement is specific. You gather 6 to 10 pieces of annotated evidence that, between them, address all 37 descriptors of the APST at the Proficient level. A single piece of evidence can address more than one descriptor. The annotation is the part that matters: each item needs a note explaining which descriptors it demonstrates and why.

The panel reviews your evidence and submits a recommendation report. TQI reviews that report and notifies you of the outcome. On approval, your digital full-registration certificate appears in the TQI portal.

6. Interstate teachers and mutual recognition

If you hold current registration in another Australian state or territory, or in New Zealand with a Practising Certificate, you apply for ACT registration through mutual recognition rather than the full application process.

The process is straightforward:

Once you have notified TQI, the mutual recognition provisions let you carry on teaching while TQI assesses your application and decides whether to register you or postpone the decision. TQI confirms your standing with your home jurisdiction as part of that assessment. Mutual recognition applicants pay the standard application fee; check the current amount on the TQI fees page.

7. Working with Vulnerable People (WWVP)

TQI registration and WWVP registration are separate requirements, and both are mandatory for teaching in the ACT. WWVP is administered by Access Canberra, not TQI, under the Working with Vulnerable People (Background Checking) Act 2011 (ACT).

You apply for WWVP separately through Access Canberra. Key facts:

• The fee is $157 for paid work; it is free if your registration is for volunteer work only.
• A WWVP registration is valid for five years.

Your TQI registration does not substitute for WWVP, and WWVP does not register you as a teacher. Employers must only employ teachers who hold a current WWVP registration, and are required to notify TQI if a registered teacher's WWVP lapses. If you are new to the ACT, apply for both at the same time.

8. Overseas-trained teachers

If you trained outside Australia or New Zealand, there are two assessments to keep separate.

First, if you are migrating on a skilled visa, you generally need an AITSL skills assessment before you arrive. This is the migration step, not the registration step. It requires at least four years of higher education study, at least 45 days of supervised teaching practice, and an Academic IELTS result of 7.0 in Reading and Writing and 8.0 in Speaking and Listening, taken within the previous 24 months. The AITSL skills assessment supports your visa application; it does not itself register you to teach.

Second, for TQI registration, your overseas qualifications are accepted if TQI assesses them as equivalent under its Teacher Registration Qualifications Policy. TQI also applies an English language requirement: if any part of your four-year qualification was completed outside Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, or Canada, you must provide an Academic IELTS result with band 8 in Speaking and Listening and band 7 in Reading and Writing, taken within the last two years.

Most overseas-trained teachers enter on provisional registration and then work toward full registration through the Professional Guidance Panel process in section 5.

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