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Level 3 Award in Education and Training (AET)
The teaching qualification. Twelve credits at Level 3 for somebody who knows their subject and now has to stand in front of a room and teach it, whether that room is a training centre, a site cabin or a factory floor.
About this course
The Level 3 Award in Education and Training, still called PTLLS by anybody who trained before 2013, is the entry qualification for teaching and training in the UK. It is where almost every in house trainer starts, and it is the one most awarding organisations want to see before they will let somebody deliver their material.
It assumes you are good at the thing you are going to teach and have never been taught how to teach it. So the time goes on planning a session, on getting a mixed room to actually take part, on assessing whether anybody learned anything, and on where your responsibilities begin and end as the person at the front.
It is a pre service award, which means you do not need to be teaching already to take it. You do need a subject, and the best ones come from the day job rather than from a textbook.
- Roles, responsibilities and relationships in education and training, including where yours stop and somebody else takes over
- Planning a session that has a point, and writing objectives you can actually tell you have met
- Inclusive teaching and learning: the mixed room, and getting the quiet half of it involved
- Choosing methods and resources that suit the subject rather than the ones you were taught with
- Assessment in education and training, and the difference between checking and marking
- Delivering and being observed, then taking the feedback and doing it better
How completing this course helps you
- A Level 3 Award in Education and Training, the recognised entry qualification for teaching in the UK
- The foundation most awarding organisations ask for before you can deliver their courses
- A trainer who plans a session rather than talks through slides
- The first step towards assessing, which is CAVA, and quality assuring, which is the Level 4 IQA
Who should attend?
For anybody who has been asked to train other people and has never been trained to do it: in house trainers, supervisors running toolbox talks and inductions, technical specialists, and people moving from doing a trade to teaching it.
Entry requirements. You must be 19 or over. There are no other national entry requirements, although we will check your English, maths and IT are at a level that will carry you through the written work, because the assignments are written.
Ready to take the next step?
Choose a delivery option, compare dates and book with confidence, or ask MB and get an answer straight away.
The three of them
Teach it, assess it, then quality assure it
These three qualifications are a ladder and people usually climb it in order. AET is teaching. CAVA is assessing somebody else against a standard. The Level 4 IQA is checking the assessors.
You do not need AET before CAVA on paper, and plenty of good assessors have never taught a class. In practice most people who end up doing both start here, because the teaching award is what gets them comfortable in front of a room.
If what you actually want is to train your own people in one specific subject, such as manual handling or slinging and lifting, that is a shorter course and a different answer. Tell us the subject and we will say which.
Teach: the AET
Level 3, 12 credits. Planning, delivering and being observed. The entry qualification for teaching in the UK.
Assess: the CAVA
Level 3, 15 credits. Assessing occupational competence in the workplace and vocational skills in a training setting.
Quality assure: the Level 4 IQA
Level 4, 12 credits. Sampling and standardising the assessors rather than the learners.
Method of assessment
How the AET is assessed
Twelve credits at Level 3: one mandatory unit and optional units, assessed by written work and by being watched teaching.
Written assignments
Against each unit. The mandatory unit covers roles, responsibilities and relationships; the optional units cover inclusive approaches and assessment.
A microteach
At least an hour of microteaching, of which you must deliver at least fifteen minutes yourself, observed and assessed. The rest can be further sessions or watching your peers and feeding back.
The award
A Level 3 Award in Education and Training, 12 credits, 48 guided learning hours. It does not expire.
Ways to learn
How you can take this course
Every route covers the same accredited syllabus and the same support. Pick the one that fits how your people work.
Classroom
Tutor-led at one of our centres, with everything provided.
Ask us to open a classroom date →or ask MB nowLive online
The same tutor and the same timetable, joined from anywhere.
Ask us to open a live online date →or ask MB nowDates and locations
Arrange this course
There are no scheduled dates for this course at the moment. It is normally arranged around you.
Tell us roughly when you need it and how many people are going, and we will come back with dates and a price.
Also available
In-company training
We run this one to order, at your place or ours.
Onsite / in-company
Run AET at your site
We deliver anywhere in the UK, on your dates and around your shift patterns. For six or more people it is usually cheaper per head than sending everyone to a centre, and nobody loses a day travelling.
Tell us roughly how many people and when, and we will come back with options and a price, or ask MB and get an answer straight away.
What onsite includes
- The same tutor, materials and certification as our centres
- Your venue or one we arrange near you
- Dates and start times built around your operation
- One invoice and one point of contact for the whole group
- Content examples drawn from your own workplace
AET FAQs
Yes. PTLLS was renamed the Level 3 Award in Education and Training in 2013. If a job advert asks for PTLLS, this is the qualification it means.
No. It is a pre service award, so you can take it before you have a teaching job. You do need a subject to build your microteach around, and the best subject is usually the one you already do for a living.
You take part in at least an hour of microteaching and deliver at least fifteen minutes of it yourself, observed and assessed. The rest of the hour can be more delivery or watching and giving feedback on your peers.
You must be 19 or over on the date you start.
No. It is a regulated qualification and it does not have an expiry date. What changes is practice, which is why trainers keep doing development on top of it.
Usually CAVA, the Level 3 assessor qualification, and after that the Level 4 IQA award for anybody who ends up checking the assessors.
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