Field entry, published 2026-11-03T00:00:00.000Z, updated 2026-11-03T00:00:00.000Z. Group: Major Group 2: Professionals
How are teaching professionals classified?
| Major group | Major Group 2: Professionals, ISCO-08, ILO |
|---|---|
| Skill level | Skill level 4, ISCO-08, ILO |
| Code ladder | Major Group 2, then sub major group, minor group and unit group in ISCO-08 |
Classification only, not a job decision
This guide describes teaching professional classification in general terms only. It does not determine any reader's occupation or code.
Teaching professionals in ISCO-08 are classified mainly by the level of education they teach and, where relevant, by the subject they teach. The work at the centre is the design and delivery of learning: planning what learners should understand, guiding them through material, judging progress and adapting teaching in response. A teacher is therefore classified as a professional not because a classroom is involved, but because teaching itself is a professional act that requires knowledge of a subject, knowledge of learning and judgement about learners.
Does the age of learners decide the classification?
Age is a useful clue, but level of education is the sharper tool. Early childhood teaching, primary teaching, secondary teaching, vocational teaching and higher education teaching differ in curriculum, pedagogy and learner needs. A primary teacher plans foundational literacy and numeracy across a broad curriculum. A secondary teacher usually works within subject specialisms and prepares learners for examinations or further study. A university teacher combines advanced subject teaching with research, supervision and curriculum development in many settings. The level shapes the knowledge and the teaching judgement required, so it shapes the classification.
Vocational teaching illustrates the point well. A vocational teacher may teach a trade, a technical subject or a professional skill to learners preparing for work. The setting may be a college, a workplace or a training centre, and the learners may be adults. What matters is that the main work is teaching a defined programme, with planning, instruction, assessment and learner support. The occupational background of the teacher does not change the classification when teaching has become the main job.
What about teaching outside schools and universities?
Teaching professionals also appear in less formal settings, including adult education, special education, language teaching and private tutoring programmes. Classification follows the same logic: is the main work the professional delivery of a learning programme? A language teacher who plans lessons, teaches groups or individuals and assesses progress is doing teaching professional work, even outside a school building. A tutor who mainly supervises homework or repeats set exercises without planning a programme may be closer to support work, depending on the actual tasks.
Special education adds nuance. Teaching learners with additional needs requires specialist knowledge of learning differences, adapted materials and individual learning plans. That specialist knowledge strengthens the professional character of the work. It does not create a separate logic. The teacher is still classified by level and subject, with the specialism reflected in the finer levels of the ILO structure.
How is teaching separated from related education work?
Schools and universities employ many people who support learning without being teaching professionals in the ISCO sense. Teaching assistants support a teacher’s lessons, prepare materials and help individual learners under direction. Librarians, administrators and technicians support the institution. Education managers plan and direct the institution as a whole. Each of those jobs is important, but each has a different main task. The teaching professional is the person whose main task is to teach.
Research also needs care in higher education. Many university posts blend teaching and research, and some posts are mainly research. When teaching is a substantial and defining part of the job, the teaching character may lead. When research dominates and teaching is incidental, the research character may lead. The balance of main tasks, not the employer’s name for the post, decides the placement. A general guide cannot settle a blended post, but it can show which question to ask: what occupies the core of the job, teaching learners or investigating a question?
What should a reader notice in a teaching job description?
Look first for curriculum responsibility. Does the job design or adapt a programme of learning, or deliver lessons planned by someone else? Look for assessment responsibility. Does the job judge learner progress and change teaching as a result? Look for subject and level. What is taught, and at what stage of education? Look for learner support that goes beyond supervision. Does the job involve guidance, feedback and pastoral care as part of teaching?
When those elements are present together, the work fits the teaching professional pattern in Major Group 2. When they are largely absent and the job mainly assists, supervises or administers, the work sits elsewhere in the structure. Teaching, in ISCO terms, is therefore a demanding professional practice in its own right, defined by knowledge of subject and learning, exercised through planning, instruction and assessment, and classified by the level and subject at which that practice takes place.
Sources checked
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