About Register trainee teachers

Register trainee teachers (Register) is the service that Initial Teacher Training (ITT) providers use to provide the Department for Education (DfE) with trainee data.

The DfE uses this trainee data to:

  • allocate the correct amount of funding to training providers and eligible trainees
  • create the ITT census publication
  • create the ITT performance profiles publication
  • inform policy development

Register replaced the Database of Trainee Teachers and Providers (DTTP) in 2022.

Access to Register

Access for accredited providers

Accredited providers can use Register to perform tasks for their trainees, such as:

  • withdrawing or deferring trainees from their course
  • getting a teacher reference number (TRN)
  • recommending trainees for qualified teacher status (QTS) or early years teacher status (EYTS)

Accredited providers can view funding information for the current academic year for eligible trainees. From the main navigation bar under ‘Funding’, you will see monthly payments paid and predicted to be paid for scholarships and bursaries.

Access for lead schools

Lead schools that deliver School Direct ITT courses in partnership with accredited providers can use Register to:

  • view trainee records where you’re their lead school
  • view funding information for the current academic year onwards for eligible trainees

Lead schools access to Register is view only. As a lead school you cannot:

  • add a trainee record
  • change trainee records
  • view draft trainee records
  • view a trainee’s diversity information

How trainees are grouped on the Register homepage

When you sign into Register you will see ‘Draft trainees’ and ‘Registered trainees’ sections on the homepage.

‘Registered trainees’ are grouped by the following ‘training statuses’:

  • ‘Course not started yet’ - trainees who are registered but their course has not started
  • ‘In training’ - all trainees currently doing training, excluding those on courses that have not started or are deferred
  • ‘Currently deferred’
  • ‘Awarded this year’ - all trainees awarded QTS or EYTS in the current academic year
  • ‘Incomplete records’ - registered trainees that are missing data

How trainee data is used in the initial teacher training (ITT) census publication

The DfE publishes a census each academic year of trainee teachers who are starting their training. This is to get an idea of who could be entering the teaching workforce and to plan teacher recruitment activities.

Once you register your new trainees, your trainee data gets analysed and filtered for the ITT census publication. Not all your new trainees will be included in the ITT census publication. To understand what data will be used read the Initial Teacher Training Census methodology.

The ITT census happens in September and October every year. We‘ll notify you about the exact dates each year.

Registering trainees and signing off new trainee data

At the start of every academic year, during September and October, you’ll need to register your new trainees and sign off your new trainee data. You need to sign off your data so we know it’s accurate for the ITT census publication. This must be done before the end of October.

Find out what the dates and deadlines are for the 2023 to 2024 academic year.

Training providers that do not use the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data collection system should register their trainees manually in the Register service.

Find out how to register your trainees manually.

Training providers who use HESA should submit their data through HESA. Your data will then be imported into Register where you can check and sign it off.

Read more about how to register your trainees through HESA.

Who you must register

You must register all trainees who start their training, even if they decide to drop out after the first few weeks. If they do drop out, you can withdraw them.

Not registering trainees who drop out early means we do not have any record of them which could affect funding payments.

Checking and signing off your organisation’s data

Once you have registered your trainees, you’ll need to check your data is correct and sign it off.

Do this in Register by:

  • using the ‘Reports’ section and exporting a CSV of your new trainees for the 2023 to 2024 academic year
  • exporting a CSV of your trainees in the ‘Registered trainees’ section, using the ‘start year’ filter to select the current academic year
  • checking your trainees directly in the service one by one

Once you are confident your new trainee data is correct, a senior person from your organisation (this should be a different person to who submitted the data) must sign it off at the end of October every academic year.

How Register relates to ITT performance profiles

Every academic year the DfE publishes data on GOV.UK of how many people have successfully completed their teacher training.

Training providers must update their trainee data every January from the previous academic year.

For example, in January 2024 a training provider should update their trainee data for the 2022 to 2023 academic year. This data will be published in July 2024 on GOV.UK. The data published on GOV.UK will be the performance profiles of trainees who successfully completed their training in the 2022 to 2023 academic year.