Frequently Asked Questions

100 hours of professional learning referenced to the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers during each five-year term of registration is a compulsory requirement for all registered teachers.

This minimum requirement applies regardless of whether you are working full-time, part-time, or as a temporary relief teacher, are interstate or overseas, have been on leave from employment (e.g. parenting leave, long service leave, retired) or you are not employed as a teacher.

You must complete a total of 100 hours of professional learning within your five-year term of registration, but the hours do not have to be evenly distributed between those years. 

Some employers will expect that you participate in professional learning on-site and/or in your own time. Any learning you do for this purpose can also be counted towards your 100 hours for registration requirements, as long as the activity meets the definition of professional learning given on the Professional Learning page.

You are encouraged to take ownership of your learning by using your professional judgement to seek out activities specific to your teaching circumstances. The information on the Professional Learning and Types of Professional Learning pages can help you determine the kinds of activities you could count and so find learning opportunities that are interesting and relevant to you and the students/children you are teaching now or into the future. Examples of possible resources can be found on the Professional Learning Resources page.

Professional learning does not have to be (but can certainly include) face-to-face and/or paid learning opportunities, such as workshops and conferences. The definition of professional learning also includes self-directed learning, such as online courses, professional reading, research, listening to podcasts, participating in webinars, etc. These types of professional learning activities would be particularly suited to those who are not teaching full-time or who are working in regional/remote areas. Check Types of Professional Learning for more examples.

You can choose from a broad range of professional learning opportunities and it is anticipated that a variety of learning opportunities will be undertaken depending on your particular circumstances. Please refer to Types of Professional Learning to find out about the many ways you can access your learning.

You need to keep both a summary record of your professional learning and supporting evidence for each learning activity you have recorded.

Professional learning must be recorded on the Teachers Portal. Please refer to Recording Professional Learning.

You also need to retain supporting evidence for completing each learning activity, such as a certificate, your own notes, a record of attendance, a reflection journal, etc. Please refer to Evidence of Professional Learning. It is recommended that you keep your evidence for at least a year after renewal

Yes, it is a requirement that you enter your professional learning on the Teachers Portal.

There are many alternative forms of evidence you can keep for learning activities where you don’t receive a certificate. These include your own notes, an attendance record, annotated handouts, a booking receipt, etc. Please refer to Evidence of Professional Learning for more examples.

The professional learning information on the Teachers Portal  will remain available on the portal indefinitely. Within the My Professional Learning History tool you can toggle between your current and previous terms of registration to view and/or edit professional learning you have already recorded. You can also download and print off the Professional Learning Summary Record for each term of registration.

You must record a minimum of 100 hours of your learning on the Teachers Portal in the Professional Learning Summary Record and keep your supporting evidence for at least a year after each period of registration. The record must provide a range of information, including a description in your own words of how you believe each learning activity could be linked to the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.

You do not need to have your Professional Learning Summary Record or supporting evidence signed by anyone. As the registered teacher you are responsible for ensuring the recording of your own professional learning is complete and correct on the Teachers Portal.

It is recommended that you break down your study program into more manageable “chunks” by recording separate entries for the individual modules or units you completed rather than the course as a whole. You will find it easier to adequately describe a link between specific topics and one or more of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) than trying to explain how the entire course could be connected to a large range of APST. This also allows you to record professional learning study hours even if you have not completed the course at the time of renewing your registration.

It is your professional judgement as to how many hours you allocate to your study. The course outline may include information about the expected time commitment. See the examples for Study on the Referencing Professional Learning to the Standards page.

For each learning activity recorded towards the professional learning requirement, you need to be able to briefly describe, in your own words, how you have made a connection to one or more of the APST. For examples of this refer to Referencing Professional Learning to the Standards.

Some professional learning providers may nominate which of the APST they consider the learning activity relates. However, you still need to describe the link between the learning and one or more APST in your own words. 

Your description will generally only need to be one or two sentences long. You should assume that a person reading your Professional Learning Summary Record does not know your teaching context or the particular professional learning activity. Using your own words, specify how the learning activity was relevant to the APST and your professional growth as a teacher.

Please do not use acronyms, vague descriptions or list the focus areas for your learning activity. Refer to Referencing Professional Learning to the Standards for more information.

Each learning activity needs to address at least one of the APST, but it is not compulsory to cover them all. 

The Focus Area Descriptors are there to help you unpack the APST and work out where your learning activity best fits. You only need to describe how the learning fits one or more of the APST, so focus areas are not required.