Information for potential applicants: UCL Secondary Mathematics Teacher Degree Apprenticeship
Please read this after attending a webinar for potential applicants.
This guidance is designed to be read after attending a webinar for potential applicants to the UCL Secondary Mathematics Teacher Degree Apprenticeship (UCL TDA). If you have not yet attended a free webinar, use the links below to sign up for an upcoming event or watch a recorded webinar. This will give you a detailed introduction to the UCL TDA.
Free webinar
Webinar introduction to UCL's Teacher Degree Apprenticeship in Secondary Mathematics for applicants.
Register hereA link to a recorded webinar will be available soon.
Before you take further action
Check that you meet all of the eligibility requirements for the UCL TDA. These include the following:
- You are a resident of England for the last 3 years or more.
- You are aged 16 years or over.
- You have, or are predicted to have by September 2025, three A-levels including mathematics at grade B or above (BBB minimum), or equivalent.
Full information on all eligibility requirements, including equivalent qualifications, is available on the UCL Secondary Mathematics Teacher Degree Apprenticeship prospectus page.
You should check your eligibility before you continue with your application.
Finding a school to sponsor your apprenticeship
If you want to apply for the UCL TDA, you will need to find a secondary school willing to sponsor your apprenticeship. This means that they agree to employ you for at least four years (the duration of the UCL TDA) and to work with UCL to provide you with the support and learning opportunities you need.
To find a school, you could:
- approach your current employer if you already work in a secondary school, for example as a Teaching Assistant (TA) or Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA)
- approach a school that you know about or have some links to, for example if you previously studied there or live in the local community
- look on the DfE Apply website for schools advertising a UCL TDA vacancy in your area
- arrange some school experience at one or more secondary schools in your area and use this to learn more about the sort of school you would like to approach. Find out more about organising school experience.
If you don’t already work in a school, don’t worry! Start by reaching out to secondary schools in your area. Let them know that you are interested in the in the UCL TDA and ask if they would be willing to sponsor you.
We have added some guidance at the end of this document to help you if you are contacting a school to ask them to sponsor you as an apprentice.
Once you have a school willing to employ you and sponsor your apprenticeship
If you find a vacancy online that you would like to apply to, you can go ahead and complete the application through the DfE Apply website.
If you have personally confirmed agreement from a school to sponsor your apprenticeship, send an email to mathstda@ucl.ac.uk with your name and the school’s details, including a contact person there.
UCL’s TDA team will take it from there and guide your school through the next steps to register with us and create a vacancy online that you can then apply to. Once the school is fully registered, you will need to complete a formal application through the DfE Apply website. This will include an interview with UCL and your employing school, and maybe some other associated selection activities which are set by your school.
You won’t have a confirmed place on the apprenticeship until you have completed the application process and been offered a job by the school. You should be aware that other applicants may also apply to a vacancy that you are involved in organising. We can’t guarantee that it’s ‘yours’ until you successfully complete the interview process and meet all conditions of an employment offer (e.g. confirmed A level grades).
If you are successful in your application, you will be registered as a student at UCL and employed as a member of staff at your school. You will begin your employment and studies in September 2025.
While you are waiting to hear back from the UCL TDA team
The registration and application process involves a few steps, so don’t worry if you don’t hear from UCL straight away. While you are waiting you can:
- keep in regular contact with your school to make sure everything is running smoothly
- send an email to us at UCL if you have any questions about the process
- gather together the documents you will need to provide to UCL and your school, including confirmation of identity (e.g. passport), address and proof of qualifications
If you have any questions, just email mathstda@ucl.ac.uk. We are here to help.
Contacting schools about employing you and sponsoring you as an apprentice
To enrol on the UCL TDA, you will need to be employed by a secondary school which is willing to sponsor you through the UCL Secondary Mathematics Teacher Degree Apprenticeship.
Telling your existing employer about the UCL TDA
If you are already employed by a secondary school, for example as a TA or HLTA, talk to your head of mathematics or headteacher about this apprenticeship and see if they are happy to support you.
In brief, your school would need to commit to:
- employ you as an apprentice secondary mathematics teacher for at least four years
- pay you on at least point 1 of the unqualified teacher scale
- support you to complete the UCL TDA
- provide a suitable mentor for the duration of the apprenticeship
To find out more, your employer can look at information available on the UCL website, using the link below.

Information for schools interested in employing an apprentice
Are you a secondary school in or near London which offers mathematics from KS3–KS5? Then you can become an employing school and partner with UCL. Please click here for more information.
Approaching a new school about the UCL TDA
If you do not already have a sponsoring school, you will need to approach one or more schools and ask them to consider employing you and sponsoring you as an apprentice mathematics teacher. You may already have a school in mind (because you have links to the school, for example) or you may be starting from scratch.
Either way, be mindful that schools are busy places and first impressions count. Before you make contact, research the school and check that you are confident that you would like to work there. Make sure that the school teaches A level maths, as this is a requirement of partner schools.
Choose who you will contact and find out their name and email address – this would usually be one of the following:
- The head of mathematics.
- The headteacher or principal.
- The head of human resources.
Write a personal email to your chosen contact. You may want to include in your email the following information:
- A bit about yourself and why you would like to work at the school as an apprentice mathematics teacher.
- A summary of why you think you would be a good fit for the school.
- An explanation of the UCL Mathematics Teacher Degree Apprenticeship (they may well not be familiar with the apprenticeship as it is a new initiative this year).
- A link to UCL’s information pages for interested schools.
- Your contact details so they can invite you for a further discussion if they are interested in finding out more.
You’re asking schools to commit to you for four years, so aim to communicate in your email why the school should invest in you. Show why you have chosen this school to contact, and why you would be a valuable member of the teaching staff there.
Try not to be upset if not all schools reply to you. This may just mean the school doesn’t have any vacancies at the moment for maths teachers. Lots of schools are looking for new teachers, so keep going and look for alternative schools if needed.
And remember, as we said above, that schools can’t commit firmly to offering you a job until you’ve been formally interviewed, so be mindful that the process could take some time.