Upgrading to a Professional or Basic Certificate
The Professional Certificate is a non-expiring certificate and indicates
to employers that you have met all of the requirements for teacher certification
specific to BC.
The basic certificate is a non-expiring certificate issued under the labour mobility agreement
that indicates to employers that you do not meet BC's academic standards for a Professional
Certificate, but you hold valid certification in another province or territory.
Please note that if you hold an interim or conditional certificate and you wish to continue teaching
in BC, it is important that you qualify for a Basic or Professional Certificate before your current
certificate expires. If your certificate expires, you will no longer be authorized to teach in BC
and the following options will not apply to you. You will need to start the application process
over again.
Upgrading from an interim or conditional certificate to a professional certificate
You must complete the additional coursework we outlined in your evaluation letter
to upgrade to a non-expiring professional certificate before your interim or
conditional certificate expires.
Once you complete the required coursework:
- send us a written request for a professional certificate and
- ask the post-secondary institution where you completed the courses to mail us your transcripts.
Upgrading from a non-expiring standard certificate to a professional certificate
We changed the requirements for a professional certificate on April 1, 2008.
You may write to us to request that we upgrade your standard certificate to a professional certificate
if you have:
- completed at least four years of university study (a minimum of 120 credits) and
- received a degree.
Please note that this upgrade will not affect your Teacher Qualification Service (TQS) salary category.
It is a change in certificate name only.
Upgrading from an interim or conditional certificate to a basic certificate
On October 29th, 2009, the BC government passed Bill 11 in support of the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT). The intent of the AIT is to enable people to practice their professions across Canada without having to complete additional studies or exams. As a result, if you have a current, valid, unrestricted teaching certificate in another Canadian province or territory, you may now be able to a Basic Certificate, which will replace your Interim or Conditional Certificate.
The Basic Certificate does not require you to complete additional coursework; you will be able to teach in BC as long as you maintain good professional standing as an educator and keep your certificate valid by paying your annual membership fee.
You may qualify for a Basic Certificate only if you have a certificate in another Canadian jurisdiction that is current, unrestricted, and valid for teaching in the public school system; a certificate that is suspended, cancelled, expired, restricted, or invalid for any reason is not acceptable. You may be able to reinstate a certificate that has been suspended, but you would need to contact that jurisdiction to ask about this.
To request a Basic Certificate, ask the education authority in the other jurisdiction to send a statement of professional standing to us. If you are certified in several jurisdictions, we will need a statement of standing from at least one province or territory where you hold a valid teaching certificate. Once we receive the statement, we will be able to issue your Basic Certificate within a few days. The education authorities must send statements of standing directly to the BC College of Teachers.
The Basic Certificate indicates to employers that you do not meet the academic standards for a Professional Certificate, but you hold valid certification in another province or territory. If you wish to upgrade a Basic Certificate to a Professional Certificate at any time, you will still be able to do so by completing the coursework we originally asked you to do. This upgrade will be entirely optional. However, you will need to keep your Basic Certificate valid to be eligible for the upgrade.