AITSL's qualification criterion is a total of study years, of which the teaching degree is only one part — and the rest does not have to be teaching at all

AITSL assesses a teaching qualification against two criteria and publishes both. The first one is arithmetic, and it is misdescribed constantly — usually as a requirement for a four-year teaching degree. It is not. It is a requirement for four years of higher education of which the teaching qualification is one component, and the rest can be almost anything.

AITSL’s own wording, from its application process page:

“You must complete a minimum of 4 years full-time (or part-time equivalent) study at university level that results in qualification/s and includes a relevant initial teacher education qualification.”

Note “qualification/s”, plural. The occupation checklists say it more explicitly. From the Primary School Teacher checklist, dated July 2026:

“Completion of a minimum of 4 years full-time (or part-time equivalent) higher education (university) level study that results in qualification/s. This must include a relevant initial teacher education qualification and can include other qualifications.”

This page states the published criteria. It does not predict how AITSL will assess any qualification. AITSL is explicit that it will not do that either in advance: “We do not provide a pre-assessment service. AITSL compares an applicant’s qualifications against the assessment criteria in place at the time they apply. Without a complete application including a full set of evidence, AITSL is not able to provide any opinion.”

The requirement has three separate parts, and they are tested separately

The checklists break criterion one into three components. They are worth separating because people frequently satisfy two and fail the third.

Part one: total volume. Four years full-time, or the part-time equivalent, of higher education resulting in qualifications.

Part two: the initial teacher education qualification. It must be “comparable to the educational level of an Australian Bachelor degree (Australian Qualifications Framework Level 7) or higher”, and it must include “at least 1 year full-time (or part-time equivalent) higher education (university) level study” of initial teacher education for your nominated occupation — plus supervised teaching practice, which is counted in days and is where most applications actually come apart.

Part three: everything else. “Other higher education qualification/s contributing to the four years of study must be comparable to the educational level of an Australian Advanced Diploma/Associate Degree (Australian Qualifications Framework Level 6) or higher.”

Read part three carefully, because it is the part that surprises people. The other qualifications making up your four years do not have to be in education. They do not have to be in a subject you teach. They have to be completed higher education at AQF Level 6 or above. AITSL’s application guide states the pair of thresholds without qualification: “For teaching qualifications, AITSL can consider completed qualifications comparable to the educational level of an Australian Bachelor degree (Australian Qualifications Framework Level 7) or higher. For non-teaching qualifications, AITSL can consider completed qualifications comparable to the educational level of an Australian Advanced Diploma / Associate Degree (Australian Qualifications Framework Level 6) or higher.”

So the common overseas pattern — a three-year bachelor in an academic subject followed by a one-year teaching qualification — is the shape the rule was written around, not an exception to it.

What cannot be counted, stated as a list

AITSL publishes the exclusions in identical wording across the checklists, the guide and the FAQs, which is usually a sign that it gets asked constantly:

“AITSL does not assess short courses (less than 1 year full-time study), non-academic qualifications, professional development programs or incomplete qualifications.”

And separately: “AITSL cannot consider study that has not resulted in a formal academic qualification.”

Two consequences that catch specific groups of people.

Work experience does not count. “No, the AITSL skills assessment for teachers is a qualifications-based assessment. Work experience undertaken before or after the completion of an initial teacher education qualification will not be considered as part of the skills assessment.” Years in a classroom do not fill a shortfall in years of study.

Qualified Teacher Status is not a qualification. For UK applicants: “QTS is the accreditation that enables you to teach in state-maintained and special schools in England and Wales. As QTS is not an academic qualification, AITSL cannot consider it as part of the skills assessment.” AITSL also lists QTS certificates, induction certificates, CVs, reference letters and school certificates among documents that “should NOT be provided” — sending them slows the assessment down.

Australian teacher registration is not a substitute either, though it is not ignored: “Australian teacher registration without conditions may be considered during the assessment process”, and AITSL asks for the registration number and status documentation if you hold it.

The one-year ITE component is where the relevance test bites

The volume test is generous about what fills the other years. The teaching component is not generous at all, and AITSL publishes several ways it can fail.

AITSL defines an initial teacher education qualification as one that “must include at least one year of full-time study (or part-time equivalent) and be specific to the stage of schooling of the nominated occupation”, containing “a program of professional studies in education including discipline-specific curriculum, pedagogical studies, general education studies and supervised teaching practice relevant to the age range of the students for the occupation you have nominated.”

Then the failure modes, in AITSL’s own words:

• A qualification spanning two age ranges may not deliver a full year for either. “When assessing a 1-year ITE qualification, AITSL looks for 1 year of teaching content specific to the nominated occupation. Qualifications that span multiple occupations or age ranges (e.g. a 1 year Primary and Secondary qualification) are likely to be assessed as not suitable.” The UK page gives the concrete case of a PGCE covering both Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1.
• A part-time-over-one-year route may not satisfy the volume. AITSL lists “A PGCE studied part-time over 1 academic year (or 12 months)” among the scenarios that “may result in a PGCE that does not meet the criterion”.
• A top-up or in-service qualification is usually not an ITE qualification. “In most applications, a top up PGCE is not found suitable as an ITE qualification”, because such qualifications generally “Do not include compulsory supervised teaching practice assessed by the institution”, “May accept prior supervised teaching experience as advanced standing or as an entry requirement”, or “Are designed as further study on top of an initial teacher education qualification.”
• Employment-based and school-led routes need three documents. AITSL “can only consider initial teacher education (ITE) qualifications that result in all 3 of the below issued by the awarding institution: a formal academic award; final academic transcript; and a statement of compulsory supervised teaching practice.” If the awarding institution cannot produce all three, the route fails on evidence rather than on content.
• Some qualification types are excluded by name. Montessori qualifications are “not recognised by AITSL as meeting the professional criterion as it is considered a specialised method of teaching.” TESOL, TEFL and ESL qualifications are outside scope because AITSL assesses school teacher occupations only — though it notes that “some initial teacher education qualifications may have ESL or TESOL as a specialist subject area.”

The second criterion, and the way it interacts with the first

AITSL states there are two criteria and “you must meet both for a successful outcome.” The second is English language proficiency, and it has a study option that quietly re-uses the four-year rule:

“Completion of at least 4 full years of study (or part-time equivalent) in higher education (university) in Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom or the United States of America resulting in qualification/s comparable to the educational level of an Australian Bachelor degree (Australian Qualifications Framework Level 7) or higher. This study must include a recognised initial teacher education qualification.”

Otherwise it is a test: an Academic IELTS Test Report Form “that shows a score of at least 7.0 for both Reading and Writing; and a score of at least 8.0 for both Speaking and Listening”, with all scores on a single Test Report Form, from a test taken within three years. AITSL accepts One Skill Retake tests, and “reserves the right to ask an applicant to undertake the Academic version of the IELTS test if there is uncertainty about their level of English language proficiency.”

Note the asymmetry against the qualification criterion: the English study route requires the four years to be at Level 7 or higher and in one of six named countries, which is stricter than the Level 6 floor that applies to the same years under criterion one.

The list that is not a list

This is the point where AITSL contradicts what almost every third-party page says about it, so it is worth quoting twice.

“AITSL Teacher Migration Services and Support does NOT have a list of accredited programs for the purposes of skilled migration. The accredited programs list on the AITSL website is a record of programs accredited as an initial teacher education program by the teacher regulatory authority in each state/territory.”

AITSL does publish an accredited teaching programs list, and it is an open, readable HTML table — provider by provider, with course name, duration in years and location — not a PDF checklist. But it is a record of Australian programs accredited by the eight state and territory authorities, compiled by AITSL. It is not a list your overseas degree could ever be on, and being absent from it means nothing about a skills assessment. Where each regulator’s list actually lives is covered in which AU/NZ regulators publish their lists openly.

And the question AITSL refuses to answer

For a site about choosing what to study, AITSL’s answer to the obvious question deserves to be quoted in full rather than paraphrased:

“What should I study to gain a successful assessment? Assessment criteria may change over time to reflect current Australian teaching standards and Australia’s immigration policy. As such, AITSL advises against making educational choices solely based on hoping to achieve a particular migration outcome.”

That is not evasion. It is the assessing authority saying that its own criteria are a moving target and that building a study plan on them is a bet. We agree with it, and we are not going to write around it. What can be said with confidence is narrower and more useful: whatever you study, AITSL will read it against the criteria in force at the time you apply, and those criteria are published in the checklist for your nominated occupation.

AITSL also declines to route you: “AITSL cannot direct or recommend an applicant to choose a particular occupation. Applicants should choose the school teacher occupation for which their teaching qualification(s) is most relevant.” It does add a genuine safety net — “During the assessment process, should AITSL determine that your qualification is better suited to a different occupation, you will be notified and offered the opportunity to change at no extra cost.”

What to do with this

1. Add up your completed higher education in years, not in degrees, and check each qualification against the right floor — Level 7 for the teaching one, Level 6 for the others.
2. Check that at least one full year of your teaching qualification is specific to a single nominated occupation. Split-phase and top-up qualifications are the published failure cases.
3. Download the checklist for the occupation you intend to nominate rather than reading a generic summary. There are seven of them and they differ.
4. Do not send documents AITSL says not to send. Its own FAQ says extra documents “will not assist your application and can slow down the assessment process.”
5. If your academic documents are in My eQuals, share them through the platform — AITSL is a registered receiving organisation and asks that you use the “Share to a registered organisation” option. AITSL cannot accept an AHEGS statement in place of an award certificate or transcript.
6. If you disagree with an outcome, the window is short and the rule about new evidence is absolute: a formal appeal “must be made by email within 60 days of the date of your assessment outcome”, and “If you want to submit new evidence or results obtained after the date of your assessment outcome (such as a recent qualification or an Academic IELTS test result), you will need to submit a brand-new assessment application.”

One more separation worth keeping straight: a skills assessment is not registration. AITSL states that “An AITSL skills assessment is for skilled migration purposes only. It is separate to teacher registration requirements”, that “To teach in Australia, you need teacher registration”, and that registration is handled by the state and territory authorities — including for New Zealand teachers, since “The Trans-Tasman mutual recognition agreement only applies to teacher registration.” How that arrangement works is covered in Trans-Tasman mutual recognition.

This site summarises published rules. It is not AITSL, it does not assess qualifications, and nothing here is a prediction of an outcome — AITSL decides, on a complete application, against the criteria in force when you apply. For anything about visas, go to the Department of Home Affairs or a registered migration agent.