P G C E

lynnemcf

DH has been teaching secondary school for seven years but does not have a teaching qualification. He is trying to find out about PGCE full time, a friend told him he should be able to get a tax free grant of £9000. He has a degree.

crazyscientist

Hi
PGCE is definatly one way to get into teaching. I think the standard stipend is around £6000 but you get more for teaching a 'shortage subject'.

However, for someone already working in a school there are other ways to gain QTS (qualified teacher status) without such a drastic wage cut. Mainly the Graduate Teacher Programme where you continue to work in school and so maintain the unqualified teacher wage. Check out https://www.tda.gov.uk for all the info on the different routes into teaching.

freebie_junkie

im intending to do the adult literacy PGCE, will i still get the grant?

go4it

The PGCE year is very intensive. The grant was introduced as it is not possible to have a part time job normally, so the grant of £6K tax free is from the Government for general living. Shortage subjects get more money.

saintstreaky

£9000 grant is only for the shortage subjects, others are still (I think) £6000.

If he has plenty of experience there are several other options. These include the GTP, as crazyscientist says, and 'flexible' PGCEs in which the amount of study and length of school placements is reduced depending on your experience. The latter is available from a number of universities (including Nottingham and the Open University, off the top of my head), but this depends on the subject (again, normally shortage subjects).

If he's currently employed, he should probably talk to his school about whether they'll support him.

Chris123_2

go4it wrote:

The PGCE year is very intensive.

Have to second that, I'm in the middle of my PGCE, not only do you not have time for a job but you have very little time to do nothing!

The six grand that I'm getting goes without me even thinking about it; rent, bills, food, car (petrol [shocking!], tax and general upkeep of car), to say I break even each month is just about right but it is tight!

David_Brent

Hi, I'm considering enrolling for the PGCE business education course for 1 year, in terms of assesment, how demanding are the assignments - are they in the same context as a dissertation for example? Also in terms of finding employment after completing the course, how quickly do you find a job in teaching? Becasue at the moment when I graduated last summer job hunting this year has brought up very few opportunities so far. Any advice either on the Business eduction course or the PGCE course in general would be of much interest. Thanks.

greyster

hiya I am not a teacher but my girlfriend is a trainee one and I have lived with 5 PGCE students over two years.

You'll prolly find the work itself is not as difficult (as your degree) but the effort required is soo much more. The 3 girls I lived with last year were getting up at 6 each morning and going to bed at 1-2am, working all the time.

There seems to be lots of paperwork involved. All of them enjoy the teaching and seem to be glad their doing the course but the paperwork really does get to them.

I have friends who are full trained teachers and they "recycle" the paperwork they created over previous years which means their workload is dramatically reduced. I think you just need to go in knowing its going to be tough but life will get easier.

I did a MSc at one of the joint #1 management schools in country and I can tell you it was soo much easier than a PGCE

With regard to job hunting. They all got jobs BEFORE they left the course. They went St. Martins college, Lancaster. Their schools are all over the country. The college must be held in high regard.

lisahobden

I did PGCE Business Studies, it was very intensive but I managed it and my child was only 1 when I started!

GOt a job no problems at all at a really good school

PM me if you want more details

Lisa