confused student.......help please!

lexi

can anyone help my confused daughter?
she is in her final yr of psychosocial studies degree, desperate to be a special needs teacher. currently has a voluntary place in a special needs school gaining experience.
as kids in the school range from 2-19yrs, she doesnt know whether to focus on primary or secondary pathways into teaching.
she has viewed various teacher websites. most of them say in order to get a pgce she has to have a degree in a core subject or 2/3rds degree in the teaching subject she chooses.
she is very confused! obviously psychology & sociology are not on the curriculum & her degree subject has limited relevance to the pgce courses available.
she completed a btec nat diploma in care along the way which is apparently equivalent to 3 a levels - so doesnt know if this has any impact.
any advice would be appreciated - good or bad!

poet123

http://www.tda.gov.uk/Recruit/becomingateacher/waysintoteaching/yourroute/q1/q2/q4/endd.aspx

The above site gives guidance if your degree is not in a core subject,you can take "subject training". Hope this helps.

Although I think it has to be a subject you studied at A level,so if your daughter relied on her care btec as the entry requirement for her degree course, this may not be the route for her.

If she is serious about teaching she could do an FE Pgce which would probably see her subjects as more relevant.

Has she thought about becomeing an ED Pysch , it would be more relevant to her degree and afford her the opportunity of working with special needs kids from the off.

Oldernotwiser

I've also known people to do additional OU units to "bulk up" the relevant subject content of their degrees. Additionally, I've come across several Psychology graduates who've managed to be accepted onto PGCE courses because of the Maths content of their degrees; I'm not sure how much Maths content there'd be on Psychosocial Studies but it might be the worth looking into.

She's more chance of being accepted in areas where there are shortages, such as Secondary Maths; primary education is very competitive to get into and she may well find this more difficult with her degree subject. Providers of PGCE courses can vary in their flexibility, so it's worth her while contacting individual universities to discuss her situation and their requirements.

She does realise that she'll have to do a certain time (2 years, I think) in mainstream education before she can move into teaching in a special needs school, doesn't she? How much time out was she planning to have before starting a PGCE?

melancholly

has she been to see her careers service to speak to someone? most unis have very experienced and helpful staff, whose resources are underused! then she can take some time to ask all the questions she can think of, as well as ones that come up as soon as find something new out!

lexi

thanx for all your replies. my daughter is a little less confused! she knew she had to get some mainstream school work under her belt before working with special needs but has just found it difficult to get the relevant advice. with schools changing their 'curriculams' i think she was hoping one of the 'ologies' would be accepted. to be honest she started out wanting to do nursing but was too young so went into the btec for 2 yrs which changed her career choice. she took psychosocial studies as she thought it would help her with more career choice. we checked out the website suggested & as well as the pgce there maybe another answer with a graduate teaching programme so she is going to show the special school head where she does voluntary work a print off as he may be able to help a little. Thanks again for all your help, you have given her some hope now & not the feeling she has wasted 3 yrs!

Oldernotwiser

lexi wrote: »

thanx for all your replies. my daughter is a little less confused! she knew she had to get some mainstream school work under her belt before working with special needs but has just found it difficult to get the relevant advice. with schools changing their 'curriculams' i think she was hoping one of the 'ologies' would be accepted. to be honest she started out wanting to do nursing but was too young so went into the btec for 2 yrs which changed her career choice. she took psychosocial studies as she thought it would help her with more career choice. we checked out the website suggested & as well as the pgce there maybe another answer with a graduate teaching programme so she is going to show the special school head where she does voluntary work a print off as he may be able to help a little. Thanks again for all your help, you have given her some hope now & not the feeling she has wasted 3 yrs!

I wouldn't put much hope in the GTP; it's highly selective and more suited to people offering mainstream shortage subjects than someone offering an unusual option. I don't think that there's ever been any question of either Sociology or Psychology becoming a National Curriculum subject.

She really must discuss this with institutions who provide the PGCE as they're the people she'll need to convince first of all and are really gatekeepers into the profession. If they want her to top up her content she'll need to contact the OU and, unfortunately she's just missed the enrolment date for this year. There are courses which start in September but of course fees will go up then with the new rules for existing graduates.

She won't have wasted 3 years but she really needs to focus now before she makes any more weak decisions. I wish her the very best of luck.

lexi

thanx she has already acted on what you have said. Yes she ha smissed the enrolment deadline, but she is soon back at uni & has already talked on the phone with her 'mentor' who has suggested like yourself she gets better advice from the team at uni. at least the voulntary work she is doing will help a little as for experience, so things are looking better for her now & she is happier. she will egt there just perhaps a little longer than what she planned. again thanx for your advice, it really has helped. lexi