in addition professional standards are an expression of what a profession stands for its objectives its expectations of members in meeting those objectives the career path and the level of commitment members of the profession make to the community they serve the australian institute for teaching and school leadership s aitsl national professional standards for teachers describe what is expected of teachers across the four career stages graduate proficient highly accomplished and lead aitsl the general teaching council for scotland gtc goes further the gtc has developed an overarching careerlong standard or nest of standards which regulate the career path from provisional registration as a teacher to full registration careerlong professional learning middle leadership and then full school leadership see box