Future upper secondary teachers receive an academic year of professional coursework, similar to many other European countries, but still only have a limited amount of teaching practice: 120 hours compared with up to 1 065 hours in other European countries as indicated above (European Commission, 2013). Evidence suggests that the modules are theory-focused, offer limited preparation in modem teaching and assessment techniques, and do not adequately cover important topics like teaching at-risk students and integrating Roma children and students with special education needs (Stark and Zoller, 2014, European Commission, 2015a). The Teaching Staff Statute that formed part of the 2011 Education Law upgraded the qualifications required to become a teacher to a new two-year Master of Arts programme in teaching.