'Paid' PGCE courses

buses7675

Hi All,

As you may have seen from my sig, I completed my degree (Maths/IT combined BSc) in Summer 2004.

Just noticed that the Uni I went to (Liverpool Hope University College - Which incidentally has now finally got its own Uni status!), is advertising some of its PGCE courses to start in September, where the course if free (certain subjects including both IT and Maths are short on students, so govt pays fees), and they also pay you a bursary of £6000 for the one year course (Sept 2005 - June 2006).

Since I finished Uni, even though I got a 2:1, I've not yet been able to get a full time job, as most jobs require experience, I've been lucky really that the shop I worked at was sold in September, and the new boss kept me on and increased my hours, but this isn't really were I want to be!

Anyone and thoughts on whether it would be worth my applying to go on the IT PGCE course, as I was very good at IT and wouldn't mind teaching in it - Also, bearing in mind that there are a shortage of students for these courses, this suggests to me that there would be a demand for teachers in this area!

Really like the Uni and the staff to (and being a student!), and although I'd reduce hours at work, the £6k pay off would cover this, so long as I was able to get a position shortly after finishing the course!

Cheers

Steve

Savvy_Sue

Personally I'd only advise PGCE if you want to teach, I'd only recommend you to go into teaching if you really really want to teach, and comments from my student days indicated that the PCGE itself bore little or no resemblance to the reality at the chalk face. Maybe things have changed ... for one thing in IT there seem to be more clever whiteboards than chalk faces.

But you say you wouldn't mind teaching IT. So:

Are there conditions on this deal? Do you have to pay anything back if you drop out or fail to get a job? Are you committed to getting a job in the state sector at the end of it? If you're happy with the answers you get to those questions, why not go for it! We need more teachers - and according to my sons, we need good IT teachers very badly!

buses7675

Hi All,

Thanks for the reply Sue!

I've emailed the Uni just for some info on exactly what the course entails - Looking at the info online, in the first 2 terms (you spend 2 days on campus per week, the other two in a school) and the final term 5 days a week at a school!

Will see what they send back, could be good - Main problem I have is that I never had a final career goal at Uni, so now I've finished my degree, I'm trying to find things that I can do (and will hopefully enjoy and be good at!), rather than already knowing what to do!

Other than teaching, a job in web design is somethings I'd like (need any help on the site Martin?!), as I was very good at this at Uni (got my highest grade in any module in Publishing on the WWW!), but again, the lack of actual experience here is my downfall,

The Uni do also have a GIEU (Graduate Into Employment Unit) where they give you a six week interview/CV writing course, then they are usually able to find you a six month paid work experience in an area of your choice - I suppose one advantage of this is that if you don't like the job after six months your not stuck with it, but if you do, you've got six months experience of it! This is something I've already looked into, and may enrol for one of the summer courses.

Cheers

Steve

Savvy_Sue

Sounds good. I left Uni determined NOT to have a career, just wanted a job, which made the careers office raise their eyebrows rather and somewhat hampered them in their offers of assistance. Lots of years later, I have no regrets. Hope you find the right thing for you!

Clareo

Savvy_Sue wrote:

Are there conditions on this deal? Do you have to pay anything back if you drop out or fail to get a job? Are you committed to getting a job in the state sector at the end of it? If you're happy with the answers you get to those questions, why not go for it! We need more teachers - and according to my sons, we need good IT teachers very badly!

Nope no catches! I've got a place on one in September but not sure if i'm going to do it or not yet!

Buses7675, you'll need to apply through the graduate teacher training registry which is basically ucas but for pgce's! Have a look at their site https://www.gttr.ac.uk for more info! There are still places on both the normal and modular I.T pgce's at Liverpool Hope at the mo but best to be as quick as poss!

btw, all pgce's are free not just maths and IT. The shortage subjects of Mathematics, Science, Modern Foreign Languages and Religious Education are lucky enough to receive a 'Golden Hello' of £4000 which you get in your 2nd year of teaching as well as getting the original £6000 training grant that all subjects get!