Prospects Postgrad 1

46 Postgrad TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION The key to the classroom With England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each having different arrangements and using different terminology, postgraduate teacher training can be mind-boggling. Well, let your mind be boggled no longer. Tom Allbeson has discovered how you can become a teacher in all four nations. THE COURSE JARGON Whether it is the there is the option for those wanting to work in secondary education to do a two-year conversion course. This provides the professional training everyone needs, as well as study at a higher education level in the chosen subject. This is offered for people interested in science, maths, modern languages or design and technology, but your undergraduate degree does need to have included a year studying the chosen subject. THE APPLICATION Although there are from the Department of Education, Northern Ireland. The GTTR website has really useful information about the difference between the courses and funding on offer in England, Wales and Scotland. The Training and Development Agency also runs the Performance Profiles website which compares the institutions in England that offer initial teacher training, the quality of courses and the proportion of trainees landing a job. As to requirements to get onto a postgraduate course, you will of course need an undergraduate degree. As you’ll be working with children, you will also have to declare any previous criminal convictions. In addition, you need at least grade C in English language and maths at GCSE level or equivalent. (If you do not have this you can look at taking an equivalence test, but should do this before applying to the courses you are interested in.) For some courses, especially ones relating to primary education, you will also need a grade C in science at GCSE level or equivalent. If all that doesn’t sound demanding enough, to get QTS in England you also have to pass a skills test covering literacy, numeracy and information computer technology. Postgraduate Certificate in Education offered in England, Wales and Northern Ireland or the Postgraduate Diploma in Education offered in Scotland, the course consists of lectures, tutorials and the all important first-hand experience. If successfully completed, the course, also known as Initial Teacher Training or ITT, will give you QTS. This is not a nasty infection, but ‘Qualified Teacher Status’ and you need it in order to secure your first probationary year of teaching. Incidentally, QTS is a term mainly used in England and Wales. In Northern Ireland it’s called ‘Eligibility to Teach’ and in Scotland courses give you a TQ or Teaching Qualification. These differences in terminology can be misleading since it is relatively easy to train in one nation and work in another, getting the relevant permission to teach on production of an appropriate postgraduate qualification. If you want to teach in primary schools the course you take will equip you to teach all subjects. If you want to teach in secondary schools you will probably train to teach just one or two subjects covering either the 11 to 16 age group or the 11 to 18 age group. Most courses last a year, although shortage subjects, applying for a place on a course is a rigorous process. Applications need to demonstrate a clear interest and commitment to the profession. So anyone interested in applying would be wise to get some relevant experience, sit in on some lessons, talk to other teachers and maybe even try a taster course. The Graduate Teacher Training Registry (GTTR) handles all applications to courses in England, Wales and Scotland (excluding the University of Paisley). The GTTR does not cover Northern Ireland where the relevant training is called Initial Teacher Education (ITE), by the way. Up-to-date information is available

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Prospects Postgrad 1

Prospects Postgrad Autumn 2008 Contents: What’s Inside For Love and Money Cash for Qualifications A Tale of Two Students Meet the Postgrad People All Aboard The Postgraduate Environment Maths Market The Postgrad Programme Teacher Training Arts and Humanities Science and Engineering Business and Management Social Sciences

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