Wanting to go into teaching

geek84

I have recently been made redundant from my office administration job, and am thinking of going into teaching. I was thinking of applying for a PGCE for secondary school teaching, but it seems as though you need a 2:1 degree classification at the very least. I have only an ordinary degree -which I completed about 20 years ago.

I have now applied for a PGCE course, to enable me to teach in colleges of FE - they did not require a 2:1 degree as an entry requirement!

However, I am regretting applying for this course now, since some people on other teaching /education forums have stated that there are not many jobs around for teachers/tutors of FE colleges. I do not want to spend the time & money doing the PGCE qualification and only to find myself not being able to get a job.

I do want to go into teaching & I can't see a way forward apart from perhaps 'topping up' my dergree so that I get at least a 2:1 classification, or I could perhaps become a teaching assistant!

As a second career choice, I was thinking of becoming a trainer. However, for this again, I would need a teaching/training qualification and a qualification in the subject I want to teach. Once again , I do not want to invest time & money in doing this type of course, and then being unable to get a tuto/trainer job.

Please advice the best course of action I could take.

Thanks very much.

CHARDONNAY_3

It would be a good idea to speak to a careers advisor, I think the service is called next step (?) (try google)

You could also look at the open university to 'top up' your degree, if that's the route you want to go down.

You could also maybe search this forum, as a few people have recently posted that they want to go into teaching & have received alot of useful responses.

Oldernotwiser

Yes, the service is called Nextstep and I agree that the OU could be a good idea.

Geek84, what is your degree/teaching subject and do you have a degree lower than a 2:1 or without honours. Do you have GCSE English and Maths?

Mrs_Money

I think perhaps it depends on which uni you apply to. I am a teacher and certainly it was "unusual" for most of them to have 2:1!

I did my PGCE with the OU - but I'm not sure if they still offer it, at least not in all subjects.

I agree with the people on the forums you have read - Adult ed and Further ed (where I teach) is never a full-time or guaranteed income. Our college has to shave off over one million from their budget in the next year - I'm expecting I may lose my job or have my already low hours cut even further.

Primary or secondary teaching may be a better bet. I'm a secondary teacher by qualification - but nothing would get me back into a secondary school classroom now. The stress would probably kill me! If you do not really want to go into teaching, then it's probably not for you - I think, given the dreadful behaviour in schools now, you have to really, really want to do it.

Good Luck with it.

geek84

Hi Folks

Many Thanks for your advice so far. In response to OlderNotWiser's question, I have got an ordinary degree - I failed my dissertation & did not bother resubmitting it again. I wish to teach maths up to GCSE level.

Thanks

dizziblonde

I'm going to suggest the same thing I did for someone asking similar the other week.

The best place to go have a look around is probably the TES forums - as well as looking in their prospective student teachers forum, also go to the subject specific one and make sure you take a look at the unemployed teachers one just to get a feel for how many vacancies there actually are before you take the jump into anything.

The reason I say that is that the "well they're crying out for teachers aren't they" is very subject and regionally specific - in other areas/subjects/age ranges it's actually pretty bleak and I wouldn't want anyone to not go into things with their eyes open.

Oldernotwiser

geek84 wrote: »

Hi Folks

Many Thanks for your advice so far. In response to OlderNotWiser's question, I have got an ordinary degree - I failed my dissertation & did not bother resubmitting it again. I wish to teach maths up to GCSE level.

Thanks

The OU offers a flexible PGCE for Secondary Maths and doesn't stipulate an honours degree. I'd take this as your starting point as you can top up your degree with them if that's required.

http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/qualification/c71.htm