Certificate for Practising Teachers (CertPT)

Advance your teaching practice with a specialist Level 6 TESOL qualification.

The Trinity Certificate for Practising Teachers (CertPT) is a professional development qualification designed for experienced English language teachers who want to deepen their pedagogical knowledge and refine their classroom practice.

The course focuses on helping teachers evaluate, adapt and create effective teaching resources, enabling them to better support learners in their specific teaching contexts.

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CertPT

Key facts

  • Level 6 qualification (RQF)
  • Designed for practising English language teachers
  • Focus on materials development and reflective practice
  • Flexible delivery: face-to-face, online or blended
  • Assessment based on real teaching contexts

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What is the CertPT?

The CertPT is a professional development qualification that helps teachers update, improve and deepen their teaching practice.

Rather than focusing on language proficiency, the qualification emphasises pedagogical development and the ability to design effective learning materials. Teachers draw on their existing knowledge and classroom experience while developing new specialist skills.

Throughout the qualification, teachers work with materials and activities that relate directly to their own teaching contexts, such as:

  • Young learners
  • English for specific or academic purposes
  • CLIL and content-based learning
  • Other specialised teaching environments

How the qualification works

The CertPT uses materials development as a way to develop teaching expertise.

Teachers complete assessment tasks that involve:

  • Evaluating existing teaching materials
  • Adapting resources for their learners
  • Creating original teaching materials
  • Reflecting on the effectiveness of those materials in practice

Because the qualification focuses on teaching practice, assignments can be submitted in English or bilingually (English with Spanish or Mandarin Chinese) depending on the course provider.

What you will develop

Through the CertPT, teachers develop the ability to:

  • Evaluate teaching materials for specific learner needs
  • Adapt resources for different learning contexts
  • Design original teaching materials
  • Apply pedagogical theory to practical teaching situations
  • Reflect critically on their teaching practice

These skills support teachers in becoming more reflective and effective practitioners.

Who the CertPT is for

The CertPT is designed for:

  • Practising English language teachers
  • Teachers who already hold an initial TESOL qualification
  • Teachers who want to specialise or deepen their teaching expertise

It is an ideal next step for teachers who want to continue developing professionally while remaining in the classroom.

Part of the Trinity TESOL qualification pathway

The CertPT forms part of Trinity’s internationally recognised TESOL qualification suite.

Qualification

Level

Stage

CertTESOL

Level 5

Initial teaching qualification

CertPT

Level 6

Continuing professional development

DipTESOL

Level 7

Advanced teaching qualification

Teachers may take the CertPT independently or as a next step after CertTESOL before progressing to DipTESOL.

CertPT

Teacher experiences

Teachers around the world take the CertPT to deepen their teaching expertise and improve their classroom practice.

CertPT

“What I really enjoyed about the CertPT course was the fact that it contained practical information that is easy apply in any ESL classroom”

Luke Carey, CertPT trainee, Spain

CertPT

“Having taken the Trinity CertTESOL qualification, I was eager to continue my professional development”

Cristina Santos, CertPT trainee, Spain

CertPT

“If I had the chance to do CertPT again, I would - it is a really valuable, rewarding course.”

Julie Chen, CertPT graduate and quality assurance specialist

Take the next step

Ready to deepen your teaching expertise?

Courses are delivered by Trinity-validated providers worldwide, with flexible study options designed to fit around professional commitments.

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FAQs

In order to run courses for any of our TESOL qualifications, a centre must first become a validated course provider.

We welcome applications from centres and institutions globally, and support them throughout the validation process. Further details on this process can be found on our Become a validated TESOL course provider page.

The minimum is 6 months and should be in a teaching context relevant to the area being studied (eg online teaching, CLIL, Young Learners). Trinity considers six months to be sufficient for a practising teacher to understand their teaching context. What constitutes as ‘relevant’ is determined by the validated course provider.

If you are entering for the English only assessment, you should have a minimum B2 level of English. If you are submitting bilingually (English and Spanish or English and Mandarin Chinese), you only need a minimum B2 level in either of these languages. In every case, the final decision on language level necessary will be decided by individual validated course providers.

Course dates and fees are set by validated course providers. Contact course providers directly for this information.

No. The course requires a minimum of 100 hours’ work, 30 of which should be input guided learning hours with from the training centre.

Yes. The main input could be conducted in a week, but the training centre will need to have systems in place to continue to guide participants as they complete their tasks. This may include online support.

Participants can only complete the CertPT through a Trinity validated course provider. The course centre may choose to run the course online, in which case physical attendance of candidates would not be expected. However, only a centre can register a teacher participant, mark tasks and send marked work for external moderation by Trinity.

There are four 750-word assessment tasks. You need to submit all four tasks for the CertPT. The CertPT is only awarded once all four tasks have been successfully completed.

All four tasks need to be submitted to Trinity at the same time for final certification. However, different course providers will have different schedules for task completion and internal assessment, helping enable flexibility for teachers. Contact course providers for details of their assessment schedules.

All four written tasks have a recommended word count of 750 words (1,000 words maximum) although this does change according to language used. See the downloadable assessment rating scale on the main CertPT page for details.

If a candidate has been entered for English only, all tasks must be completed in English. If a candidate has been entered for bilingual assessment, tasks can be in either language, or a mix of both.

All internal-awarded marks are provisional until validated by Trinity at external moderation. On occasion, Trinity may overturn the grade given by a course provider, regrading a piece either higher or lower. Your course provider will let you know if this has happened.

Once a course centre submits your task marks to Trinity, certificates for successful candidates are forwarded to course centres in 4-6 weeks.

Yes, there is an appeals process for externally moderated work at:

www.trinitycollege.com/help/customer-services/enquiries-about-results

If you don’t yet have an advanced-level teaching qualification, the DipTESOL provides an excellent route of progression for teachers developing their professional practice.

The CertPT is at the same level as the final year of an undergraduate degree and is entirely context-based, focusing on what teachers do with teaching resources in their own classrooms. This is unlike other qualifications, which focus on teaching skills and methodology in general. The CertPT helps teachers evaluate, adapt, create, use and reflect on the use of teaching resources relevant to their context. Master’s degrees, at a level higher than the CertPT, are longer and tend to be more theoretical in content.

We take complaints very seriously and want to make sure that courses and assessment run according the Trinity’s requirements. Trinity requires every centre to have a centre complaints process. In the first instance, you should speak to your tutor / course director or centre manager/principle about the complaint. They will be able to advise you about the complaint.

If your complaint does not get resolved after following this process, you can let Trinity know by following our complaints procedure and we will do our best to help.

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