“Medical education course” is a much broader category than “Teach the Teacher”, and most of what it contains scores nothing on an IMT application. The IMT self-assessment has exactly two domains where education activity earns points — training in teaching, and teaching experience — plus presentations, which is where the largest single score sits.
This page maps the category onto those domains: what scores, what scores zero, what changes for IMT 2027, and which purchases actually move the number. Checked against IMT Recruitment on 21 September 2026.
The two domains that score education
Education is two of the six IMT domains. Calculate My Score → Get your total out of 30:
Training in teaching
| Points | IMT’s wording | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | “I have a higher qualification in teaching e.g. PG Cert or PG Diploma.” | Must be “a university accredited programme”, eligibility must specify “that only graduate entrants can apply”, and it must “be worth an equivalent of least 60 credit points or equivalent”. Costs roughly £4,400–£5,700 and takes a year or more. |
| 1 | “I have had training in teaching methods which is below the level of a PG Cert or PG Diploma.” | Must be “additional to any training received as part of your primary medical qualification” and “delivered with a duration of at least six hours (i.e. a one-day course) of synchronous (live) teaching time”. This is the Teach the Teacher tier. £130–£610. |
| 0 | “I have had no training in teaching methods.” | — |
One scoping rule governs the whole domain: “Training can only be included in this section if it was specifically focused on teaching.” That single sentence is what disqualifies most of the courses doctors buy.
Teaching experience
| Points | What it takes |
|---|---|
| 5 | Working with local tutors to organise a teaching programme — a series of sessions — for healthcare professionals or medical students, on which you regularly taught over approximately three months or longer, with evidence of formal feedback. |
| 3 | Regular teaching for healthcare professionals or medical students as part of a defined programme or course, over approximately three months or longer, with evidence of formal feedback. |
| 1 | Occasional teaching — less than three months, but at least three sessions — with evidence of formal feedback. |
| 0 | None of the above. |
Feedback is a hard gate, not a nice-to-have. IMT’s guidance is explicit: if your teaching experience does not have evidence of feedback, you can only select the “none/other” option. Three years of teaching with no collected feedback scores zero. Collect it as you go; you cannot manufacture it afterwards.
These two domains are separate and they add. A course scores in the first, your teaching scores in the second, and nothing you do in one affects the other.
What scores zero in the teaching domains
This is the useful half of the answer, and it is the half most “best courses for IMT” lists leave out. None of the following earn a point in either teaching domain, however much they cost and however many CPD hours they carry:
- ALS, ATLS, APLS and other resuscitation courses. Not specifically focused on teaching. The instructor courses that sit above them are a different matter — those are training in how to teach.
- Clinical skills and procedural courses. Same reason.
- MRCP and other exam preparation courses. Teaching you, not teaching you to teach.
- Leadership, management and quality improvement courses. They may score elsewhere in the application; they do not score here.
- Conference attendance where you did not present. Attendance is not training in teaching, and it is not a presentation either.
- Teaching training that formed part of your medical degree. Explicitly excluded: the training must be “additional to any training received as part of your primary medical qualification”.
- Any self-paced online teaching course with no live component. It fails the six-hour synchronous requirement however many hours it carries.
- Teaching you delivered with no collected feedback. Fails the teaching-experience gate.
A completed quality improvement project and a publication both score, in their own domains. A course about quality improvement, or about research methods, is not the same purchase as the project or the paper.
Presentations: where the biggest score is
Presentations are scored separately again, and this is the largest single number in the IMT self-assessment. IMT’s 2026 tiers, for a first or second author:
| Achievement | IMT 2026 (published) | IMT 2027 (derived from the published conversion) |
|---|---|---|
| Oral presentation, national or international meeting | 6 | 8 |
| Poster, national or international meeting | 4 | 6 |
| Oral presentation, regional meeting | 3 | 4 |
| Oral local, or poster regional or local | 2 | 2 (unchanged) |
The 2027 figures come from IMT Recruitment’s published summary of changes, which states “Presentations/posters: 6 becomes 8, 4 = 6, 3 = 4, 2 is unchanged.” The full 2027 scoring page is not published yet, so treat these as the expected values rather than confirmed ones. Note also that this domain “should not include presentations primarily aimed at teaching” — a teaching session you delivered belongs in teaching experience, not here.
What else changes for IMT 2027
IMT Recruitment states that “the only material changes are to the publications and presentations/posters domains”, so the training-in-teaching and teaching-experience tiers above are expected to carry over unchanged. Three things do change:
- Presentations go up. The conversion above.
- Publications come down. “Publications: 8 becomes 6, 6 = 5, 5 = 4, 3 = 2 and 1 is unchanged.” Abstracts and letters “can no longer be claimed under the ‘PubMed-cited other publication’ scoring options”.
- The five IMT-only shortlisting points are removed. IMT Recruitment: “it has been decided to remove this score from shortlisting.”
Read together, the direction is clear: for 2027 the self-assessment rewards presenting more and publishing less. A national oral presentation is now worth more than any publication tier.
What actually moves the score, per pound
- A teaching-methods course with at least six hours of live teaching. 1 point, £130–£610, one day. The most reliable point in the whole self-assessment, because it is the only one that depends solely on you buying and completing something rather than on a committee accepting your work.
- Getting existing work presented at a national meeting. Up to 8 points for 2027. You almost certainly already have the material — an audit, a QI cycle, a case. What you are missing is a conference that accepts it in time.
- Three months of regular teaching, with feedback collected. 3 points, free, but it takes three months and it takes remembering to hand out feedback forms from session one.
- Organising a teaching programme rather than teaching on one. 5 points. The same three months, a conversation with your local tutors, and a different job title.
- A PGCert. 2 extra points over a short course, £4,400–£5,700 and a year. Worth it for a career in medical education. A poor way to buy points.
Note that items 1 and 2 are in different domains and add together, and that neither of them requires you to wait three months.
Where Erudical sits
Erudical’s Teach the Teacher course is a rung-one course built to the published criterion: an 8-hour live day containing 6 hours of live teaching — the IMT minimum — plus 20 self-paced modules worth over 12 hours and three marked assignments. It is accredited by The CPD Certification Service, provider number 13684, for up to 24 CPD hours in total. Enrolment is £199.
Enrolment also includes a place at the NMERC 2026 conference, which is what makes the arithmetic different. Because training in teaching and presentations are separate domains, they add: 1 point for the course plus up to 8 points for a national oral presentation, so up to 9 of the IMT 2027 self-assessment points for £199. On the published 2026 tiers the same two domains total up to 7.
Two honest caveats. The course point is the reliable half — you complete the course, you get the certificate, it scores. The presentation half is not automatic: your abstract has to be accepted, you have to present, and it has to have happened before you submit. The conditions and the dates are set out in full on presentation points for IMT and ST3.
If the teaching point is not accepted, the £199 is refunded in full under the points guarantee, within 14 working days. No claim has been made in eight years and more than a thousand doctors.
£199: 1 IMT point for the course, up to 8 more at NMERC 2026
Up to 9 of the IMT 2027 self-assessment points from one enrolment. Points accepted or your money back.
Frequently asked questions
What medical education course is best for an IMT portfolio?
A teaching-methods course containing at least six hours of live, synchronous teaching — the category usually sold as “Teach the Teacher” or “Train the Trainer”. That is what the IMT training-in-teaching domain scores at 1 point. Broader medical education courses that are not specifically focused on teaching score nothing in that domain, because IMT states that “training can only be included in this section if it was specifically focused on teaching”. Prices for qualifying courses ran from £130 to £610 on 21 September 2026.
How many points is a medical education course worth for IMT?
One point for a course below PGCert level with at least six hours of live teaching, or three points for a PGCert or PGDip in medical education. A PGCert must be a university accredited programme, open only to graduate entrants, worth the equivalent of at least 60 credit points. There is no tier above three, so an MSc scores the same as a PGCert.
Do ALS, MRCP prep or QI courses score on the IMT self-assessment?
Not in the teaching domains. IMT restricts training in teaching to training “specifically focused on teaching”, which excludes resuscitation courses, clinical skills courses, exam preparation and leadership or management courses whatever their length or CPD accreditation. A completed quality improvement project scores in its own domain; a course about quality improvement is a different purchase from the project itself.
What is the difference between training in teaching and teaching experience for IMT?
They are two separate domains that add together. Training in teaching scores the course you took: 1 point below PGCert level, 3 for a PGCert or PGDip. Teaching experience scores the teaching you delivered: 1 for occasional teaching of at least three sessions, 3 for regular teaching on a defined programme over roughly three months or longer, and 5 for working with local tutors to organise a teaching programme you regularly taught on. Every tier of teaching experience requires evidence of formal feedback — without it you can only select the none/other option.
What is changing in the IMT self-assessment for 2027?
IMT Recruitment states that “the only material changes are to the publications and presentations/posters domains”. Presentations go up — “6 becomes 8, 4 = 6, 3 = 4, 2 is unchanged” — and publications come down: “8 becomes 6, 6 = 5, 5 = 4, 3 = 2 and 1 is unchanged”. Abstracts and letters can no longer be claimed under the PubMed-cited other publication options, and the five IMT-only shortlisting points are removed. No change to training in teaching or teaching experience has been announced. The full 2027 scoring page is due in the autumn of 2026.
Does an online medical education course count for IMT?
Only if it contains at least six hours of live, synchronous teaching. IMT’s wording is “training should be delivered with a duration of at least six hours (i.e. a one-day course) of synchronous (live) teaching time”. Self-paced modules can sit alongside a live day and add depth and CPD hours, but on their own they do not meet the criterion, regardless of how many hours or CPD points they carry.
Can one purchase score in more than one IMT domain?
Yes, if it delivers two different things. A teaching course that also includes a place at a national conference can score 1 point for training in teaching and, if your abstract is accepted and you present before you submit, up to 8 more for a national oral presentation under the IMT 2027 conversion. They are separate domains, so they add. Erudical’s £199 enrolment is built around that: the course plus a place at NMERC 2026, for up to 9 of the 2027 self-assessment points.
What is the quickest way to add points to an IMT application?
A qualifying teaching course, because it is the only point that depends entirely on you rather than on a committee. It is one day and one certificate. After that, getting work you have already done accepted at a national meeting is worth up to 8 points for 2027 — the largest single score available. Three months of regular teaching with collected feedback is worth 3, and organising the programme rather than teaching on it is worth 5, but both need the three months and both need the feedback collected from the first session.
Next: what a teaching course scores in your specialty, the full teaching qualifications ladder, or the ten providers compared.
Sources: IMT Recruitment — application scoring · IMT 2027 summary of changes · PHST Recruitment — application scoring
Checked against IMT Recruitment’s application scoring guidance and its published summary of changes for 2027 on 21 September 2026. IMT states that its scoring page “pertains to 2026 recruitment and will be updated for the 2027 recruitment year in the autumn of 2026”; we will update this page when it is.