Mandatory Qualifications for HI, VI and MSI Teachers - the MQ

All qualified teachers of HI, MSI and VI children and young people are required to hold a specialist Mandatory Qualification, often known as the MQ.
The UK government guidance on the mandatory qualification can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mandatory-qualifications-specialist-teachers

MQ Documents in the Document Library

The Mandatory Qualification also has its own section in the  NatSIP document library.  You can find the MQ section here.

Looking for training pathways information?

See the Training Pathways section of the Sensory Learning Hub.  You can find the TP section here.

Mandatory Qualification

QTSI Apprenticeships as a training route

The mandatory qualification course providers in England, together with NatSIP, NDCS, View, BATOD, and RNIB, have been working with a small group of sensory professionals over the last five years to develop the Sensory Teachers (QTSI) apprenticeship. This Trailblazer Group has been led by Rory McDonnell (Kent County Council) and Tina Wakefield (for NDCS) and they are thanked for all their work.

All the key documentation for the apprenticeship was approved by the previous Secretary of State for Education in October 2023. Since that time staff from the Universities of Leeds, Manchester, and Birmingham, as well as Mary Hare, and Seashell with Liverpool John Moore's University have been working on delivering the apprenticeship route for Sensory Teacher courses for September 2025. They all still hope to maintain this timeline but the government is conducting a review of apprenticeships at the moment. One of the serious options the government are considering is to no longer support level 7 apprenticeships, including the Sensory Teachers Apprenticeship.

Concerns about this have been raised to the current Secretary of State and there has been recent formal communication between both NatSIP and NDCS with the Minister for Skills. We are currently waiting for the government to announce the results of their review of apprenticeships.

Whilst this uncertainty continues it is recommended that teachers for children with SI (deaf/HI, Deafblind/ MSI and VI) who require the mandatory qualification apply throuigh the usual University routes for the MQ courses. As soon as clear information is available from the government it will be shared.