By the time that your young teachers are getting towards the "Dip" they need to have passed Grade 8 practical in the subject they are teaching, and to have passed Grade 6 theory. The minimum age is 18.

I would suggest that they should also have been teaching for at least 4 years, with several successful candidates' certificates, both in Practical and Theory, to their credit - up to at least Grade 5 and preferably beyond.

They need to learn 3 Grade 6 pieces from the current AB lists, one from each group. How much they actually get to perform of these during the exam appears to depend on the examiners.

In some cases the candidate is asked to play through all 3 pieces at the end of the exam. (This is nice, as at least they don't feel as if they have done all that practice in vain.)However, time may be short, so only extracts may be heard - and used as a basis for discussion.