How to Become a Teacher in Quebec

Written November 13, 2026

The short answer

Quebec licenses its own teachers in its own way, and it does not look like the rest of Canada. There is no college of teachers to join and no standalone certification exam set by a regulator. You complete teacher training in a recognized bachelor's or master's degree program, pass the recognized language examination, and your university sends a recommendation to the Ministère de l'Éducation, which issues the teaching diploma — the brevet d'enseignement, stated here once — the permanent licence to teach. If your training does not line up exactly, you enter on a temporary licence, most often the probationary teaching permit, and clear the conditions written on it.

Everything below is Quebec's route only. Do not carry steps from another province's teacher college into a Quebec file; Quebec will not use them.

Step 1: Complete recognized teacher training

The main road into Quebec classrooms is a recognized teacher training program at a Quebec university. At the undergraduate level that is the recognized bachelor's degree in teacher training for the sector you want to teach in — preschool and elementary education, secondary education, or another recognized field. At the graduate level, recognized master's degree programs in teaching take people who already hold a bachelor's degree in a teachable subject and add the professional training on top, and their graduates are recommended to the ministry for certification the same way.

Two features of the Quebec system shape your choice of program. First, the licence follows the training: the teaching diploma is issued because the recognized program is complete, not because a separate body re-examines you afterward. Second, the university is the messenger. On the Government of Quebec's teaching licences page, the mechanism is stated plainly: once you have completed your teacher training in a recognized bachelor's or master's degree program, the university sends a recommendation to the Ministère de l'Éducation so that you can be issued a teaching diploma.

Apply to the university program, not to the ministry, when you are starting from scratch.

Step 2: Pass the recognized language examination

One requirement sits across almost every licence in Quebec. Successful completion of the recognized language examination is compulsory to obtain a teaching licence, with the exception of a provisional teaching licence.

Quebec teaches in French and in English, and the language examination follows the language of instruction for the sector you are entering. Treat the examination as part of the training timeline, not as paperwork after graduation: a file that is otherwise complete does not produce the diploma without it, because the requirement is written into the licence rules themselves.

Step 3: Receive the teaching diploma

The teaching diploma is the permanent licence. The Ministère de l'Éducation issues it on the university's recommendation once the recognized program is complete and the language examination is passed. There is no probationary period attached to this road: the graduate of a recognized program moves directly to the permanent licence.

Keep the name straight when you deal with employers. School service centres and school boards will ask for your teaching licence, and the diploma is the document that answers them for the whole territory of Quebec.

Step 4: The temporary licences, and what each one is for

Quebec's temporary licences exist for people whose training is real but does not match a recognized Quebec program line for line. The Regulation respecting teaching licences provides for three of them, and they are not interchangeable.

Probationary teaching permit. This is the main temporary licence for qualified teachers who still have conditions to clear. The Government of Quebec lists who receives one, among others:

• Persons who have successfully completed a recognized specialized graduate studies program of 30 credits — the second road into teaching for degree holders, again on the university's recommendation
• Holders of a teaching licence issued with conditions in another Canadian province or territory
• Persons who have completed a teacher training program outside Canada equivalent to a teacher training program in Quebec

To obtain a teaching diploma, the holder of a probationary permit must meet the conditions listed on the permit. The permit can be renewed once you have met all the conditions listed on it except the successful completion of the probationary period; after every condition including the probationary period is met, you apply for the teaching diploma.

Provisional teaching licence. This licence covers persons enrolled in a program leading to a teaching diploma — people still in training. Under the Regulation respecting teaching licences, a provisional general education teaching licence, valid for a single period of not more than four years and expiring at the end of the third school year after the year it was issued, may be issued to a person completing the third year of a recognized general education teacher training program who holds a promise of employment from an employer certifying that the position is directly related to the training and cannot be filled by the holder of a teaching licence. This is the one licence class exempt from the language examination requirement at issue.

Teaching authorization for vocational training. Vocational training runs on trade experience plus education coursework. Individuals who have successfully completed 90 credits of the bachelor's degree program in vocational training education, including 45 credits in education, can obtain a teaching authorization that makes them legally qualified, again on the university's recommendation to the Ministère. The authorization is valid for a maximum of six years and can be renewed for periods of five school years when the conditions on it are met. Once the recognized bachelor's degree program in vocational training is complete, the Ministère issues the teaching diploma.

Behind all three sits the letter of tolerance, and it is not a licence you apply for. It is a permission granted in exceptional circumstances to an employer — mainly an employer facing a shortage of teachers — authorizing it to hire a person who does not hold a teaching licence and has not had teacher training. Letters of tolerance are issued only to employers, so there is no applicant route to describe.

Step 5: Coming from another province or another country

Certification in another province does not transfer into a Quebec diploma automatically, and the Regulation splits the answer by whether conditions attach. A teacher who holds a licence equivalent to a general education teaching diploma, without conditions, issued in another Canadian province or territory may be issued the teaching diploma itself. The Quebec answer for a teacher licensed with conditions in another Canadian province or territory is the probationary teaching permit, with its conditions set by the Ministère, and the diploma at the end of it. The same structure handles teachers trained outside Canada whose program is judged equivalent to a Quebec teacher training program: probationary permit first, conditions, then diploma.

The detailed terms and conditions for the probationary permit are published by the Ministère in French only, and the Ministère's teaching licence service can be reached at titularisation@education.gouv.qc.ca with questions about a specific file.

What the opened pages do not state

The Quebec pages opened for this guide state the licence classes, the university-recommendation mechanism, the 30-credit specialized graduate route to a probationary permit, the 90-credit vocational authorization, and the language examination rule. They do not state a fee for a teaching licence, a processing time for issuing a diploma after a university recommendation, a tuition figure for Quebec teacher training programs, or a teacher salary — pay is set under collective agreements with the school service centres and school boards — so this guide gives none of those. The pages also do not list every recognized program by name; recognition is held by the programs themselves, and the university is the place to confirm a given program leads to a licence.

Related guides:

• How to Become a Teacher in Canada — the national picture: every province certifies its own teachers, and Quebec's university-recommendation model is the outlier among them.
• How to Become a Teacher in Ontario — the contrasting route next door: a self-regulating college, a registration fee, and an annual membership fee.
• How to Become a Teacher in British Columbia — certification through a government branch, with its own certificate types.
• How to Start Getting Your Foreign Teaching Credentials Recognized in Canada — the credential assessment mechanics for teachers trained outside Canada.

Sources

• Government of Quebec, Teaching licences — the teaching diploma as the permanent licence issued by the Ministère de l'Éducation on the university's recommendation after a recognized bachelor's or master's program, the language examination as compulsory for every licence except a provisional licence, the probationary teaching permit groups including the 30-credit specialized graduate program, teachers licensed with conditions in another province or territory, and teachers trained outside Canada, the vocational training authorization at 90 credits including 45 in education with a six-year maximum validity, and the letter of tolerance issued only to employers.
• LégisQuébec, Regulation respecting teaching licences (I-13.3, r. 2.01) — the classes of teaching licences the Minister may issue, the teaching diploma for the holder of an equivalent licence without conditions issued in another Canadian province or territory, probationary permits for applicants with supplementary training requirements, provisional licences for persons enrolled in a program leading to a teaching diploma, and the section 42 provisional general education licence conditions including the third-year standing and the promise of employment.