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We have created this guide to help you to consider the many options open to you if you are interested in teaching. We hope this helps.
There are many options open to you, some of which you may not have considered.
There may also be financial implications that you need to consider.
Do contact us if you need extra advice by email.
Age range and education sector
You should now choose one of the options below:
Teaching in the post-compulsory education and training sector
To teach in a school, you need a qualification that includes Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).
Our school teacher training qualifications include this.
When you study for a teaching qualification for schools, you have to choose either:
Primary (age from 3 to 11)
Or
Secondary (age from 11 to 18) and at secondary level, you have to choose the subject you want to specialise in.
You may wish to consider the Graduate Teacher Programme, an employment-based route into teaching. The Kirklees Partnership for Employment-based Teacher Training is an accredited provider of this route. Please follow the link below for further details:
http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/community/education-learning/graduateteaching/graduateteaching.shtml
Alternative graduate teacher programmes may be found on the Train and Development Agency website (www.tda.gov.uk)
You can choose to study an undergraduate or postgraduate qualification. Choose the relevant link depending on the qualifications you have so far.
You can either choose to take a 3 or 4 year BA/BEd course straight after A levels. This will teach you both how to teach and you will also gain subject knowledge in the national curriculum subjects.
Alternatively, you can choose to take an undergraduate degree (BA/BSc) in a subject in three years and then take a one year Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) that specialises in primary education.
There are three and four year courses available.
These have traditionally been called B Ed or Bachelor of Education and are four years long.
We offer a three year BA Early Primary Education with QTS course. After receiving this qualification, you can go straight into teaching.
The course covers the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1, for children aged 3 to 8.
Applications are via UCAS and you will be able to search for courses at other universities and colleges on their website (www.ucas.ac.uk).
Here is more detailed information about our BA Early Primary Education with/without QTS.
The TDA or Teaching and Development Agency fund and market school teacher training courses, so they are a good source of information about teaching and the different ways of entering school teaching. Try their website or give them a call, they have a wealth of information to help you make the right decision. www.tda.gov.uk.
You should note that the Primary BA course we offer is very popular - last year we recived over 500 applications for only 20 places. It is therefore worthwhile considering other options to apply for. You may want to consider our undergraduate degree (BA) in Childhood studies which offers routes into a wide range of careers where you can work with young children.
Unfortunately we don’t offer a postgraduate primary teacher training qualification, the Postgraduate or Professional Certificate in Education or PGCE.
If you have or are studying for a degree and you wish to teach in a primary school, you need to find a place on a PGCE with QTS.
There are two main sources of information.
The first is the Teaching and Development Agency or TDA who fund and market school teacher training courses. Their website, www.tda.gov.uk, has information about routes into teaching and about what it is like to teach. They have a wealth of literature available which should help you choose the right course.
The second is the Graduate Teacher Training Registry or GTTR. They are the organisation that handle all the applications for primary and secondary postgraduate teacher training courses. Their web site is an excellent place to search for Universities and Colleges that offer the courses you are interested in, and they have up to date information on where places are available, www.gttr.ac.uk.
Its worth noting that competition for places on these courses is fierce and you would be wise to contact each college you are considering applying to to check on the appropriateness of your degree subject (or which degree subject you should take if you are not yet taking a degree) and the class of degree you may be expected to achieve. You will also need to apply early.
And if you don’t find what you want, do consider our secondary and post-compulsory teacher training courses.
To teach in a secondary school you have to choose your specialist subject and have a relevant subject degree. You then take the Postgraduate or Professional Certificate of Education (PGCE) depending on the academic level you decide to study at.
This means that you have to undertake, in effect, four years of study.
We offer the following subjects:
If we offer the subject you are interested in, there are links to information about our courses above and you can apply on-line via GTTR www.gttr.ac.uk.
There are other subjects available but you would have to study elsewhere. There are two sources of information for this which should help you.
The first is the Teaching and Development Agency or TDA who fund and market school teacher training courses. Their website, www.tda.gov.uk, has information about routes into teaching and about what its like to teach. They have a wealth of literature available which should help you make the right decision.
The second is the Graduate Teacher Training Registry or GTTR. They handle applications for primary and secondary postgraduate teacher training courses. Their web site is excellent for searching for Universities and Colleges that offer the courses you are interested in, and they have up to date information on where places are available, www.gttr.ac.uk.
You might not realise that there are special qualifications for teaching in this sector, or that this is most important for the more popular, non-shortage subjects.
The sector includes teaching in further education, higher education, adult learning and community based education.
Fewer Universities and Colleges offer this type of teacher training. Huddersfield offers both full and part-time courses. FENTO, the Further Education National Training Organisation, now known as Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) and Standards Verification UK (SVUK), have a list of colleges offering these qualifications.
Although you do not have to have these awards to get a job in the sector, it helps you to have the qualification to enter the sector or you would have to achieve it within a limited time.
You take a course based on whether you are already teaching or not.
There are two qualifications available, the Professional/Postgraduate Certificate of Education or PGCE and the Certificate in Education or Cert. Ed (if you don't have a degree).
Neither offer QTS so you wouldn't be able to teach in a school, but the wide options open to you often encourage people to apply.
Because there are some subjects taught in this sector where you would be unlikely to have a degree e.g. beauty therapy you can enter the course without a degree, but with some qualification in the subject e.g. NVQ level 4 and be awarded the Cert.Ed, which still includes the teaching qualification.
If you are not already teaching
… you have to take the full-time, one-year course. We currently offer most places at Huddersfield but we offer groups at other centres. We have some places at Grimsby and Darlington and at our University Centres in Barnsley and Oldham.
PGCE (PCET) - Course Information
Application Form
Cert. Ed (PCET) - Course Information
Application Form
If you study our course at Huddersfield you will be allocated to a subject specialist group e.g. Basic Skills so you can train with like minded students.
If you are already teaching in the sector
… you need to take our part-time, two year course. This is offered through a network of around 30 colleges throughout the north of England . In order to give you the chance to learn more about teaching your specialist subject you attend a conference at the University in Huddersfield . This is held on one day in autumn and two days in early July in your second year of study.
PGCE or Cert. Ed. - Course Information
Application Form
If your are interested in working with young children, then it is worthwhile also considering our early years courses.
We offer various qualifications which offer an alternative career.
We also offer the Early Years Professional Status qualification at degree levels.
The Early Years sector is growing and opportunities include education, early years and children centres.
We offer EYPS alongside academic qualifications, this is a new status which is beginning to be widely recognized and embedded in the early years sector. The government aims to have Early Years Professionals (EYPs) in all children's centres after 2010, and in every full daycare setting by 2015.
We offer both undergraduate and postgraduate and postgraduate routes to EYPS.
Tel: 01484 478249
Email: sepd@hud.ac.uk
