Any Teaching Assistant can i advice on qualifications needed

noodlespink2

Im going to be volunteering in my sons school for a couple of hours a week from January as i want to become a teaching assistant. Is there any teaching assistants that can tell me what qualifications they have please!

Many thanks in advance

Pinklepurr

I am a TA and have no childcare/nursery/TA qualifications.

When I applied for the role I think it helped that I had volunteered for a year for the Home Start charity and worked with families with young children. Doing voluntary work at the school will help, but each head teacher will have different opinions on what they look for in a TA. Some will want formal (relevant) qualifications and others may look more for personal qualities.

Perhaps speak to the TA's at your sons school and find out how they were successful. Good luck,

princessdon

You need a minimum of level 2, preferably level 3 in supporting teaching and learning.

Many colleges and community education offer this, it's only a few hours per week class based and approximate. 1 day minimum in the classroom.

If you are over 24 you can get a loan for the fees repayable if you earn over the student loan rate.

The quals are not essential but highly desirable and few get a look in without them. It's also probable that quals will be essential very soon. So for 3 hours a week I'd highly recommend (but I teach this course, so am biased ).

noodlespink2

princessdon wrote: »

You need a minimum of level 2, preferably level 3 in supporting teaching and learning.

Many colleges and community education offer this, it's only a few hours per week class based and approximate. 1 day minimum in the classroom.

If you are over 24 you can get a loan for the fees repayable if you earn over the student loan rate.

The quals are not essential but highly desirable and few get a look in without them. It's also probable that quals will be essential very soon. So for 3 hours a week I'd highly recommend (but I teach this course, so am biased ).

My local college wont let me start the course as ive missed it for this year and dont have the childcare for my daughter at the moment to be able to do it. There are Teaching Assistant courses and also supporting teaching and learning online courses which would be better for me as i could start straight away and do it in my own time. One is NCFE and the other is CACHE accredited, are they recognised in schools!

Rosemary7391

I don't have any specific TA qualifications, but I am educated to degree level so have a lot of subject specific knowledge. Many places do ask for the qualifications in the adverts, but not all.

the-mango

When I worked as a TA I just had A-levels and no childcare qualifications but lots of general childcare experience

princessdon

noodlespink2 wrote: »

My local college wont let me start the course as ive missed it for this year and dont have the childcare for my daughter at the moment to be able to do it. There are Teaching Assistant courses and also supporting teaching and learning online courses which would be better for me as i could start straight away and do it in my own time. One is NCFE and the other is CACHE accredited, are they recognised in schools!

Yes both the NCFE and CACHE are industry leading.

noodlespink2

princessdon wrote: »

You need a minimum of level 2, preferably level 3 in supporting teaching and learning.

Many colleges and community education offer this, it's only a few hours per week class based and approximate. 1 day minimum in the classroom.

If you are over 24 you can get a loan for the fees repayable if you earn over the student loan rate.

The quals are not essential but highly desirable and few get a look in without them. It's also probable that quals will be essential very soon. So for 3 hours a week I'd highly recommend (but I teach this course, so am biased ).

Thanks for all your help - Do you know what the difference is between Teaching Assistant courses and supporting and learning courses at all!

laurel7172

I'm an HLTA with no formal TA qualifications, though I do have a degree. I started as a learning support assistant and I'm lucky to have been working at a time and in a place where opportunities to get on have come along, but I've also worked extremely hard. None of our HLTA team are formally qualified, but we've been promoted over people with formal qualifications...ummm...probably because we're quite good at what we do. Sorry.

I'm willing to be shot down by people who *actually* know what they're talking about here, but when colleagues have taken NVQs and so forth, the courses seem to have been grounded in experience and good practice. From what I've seen, I cannot imagine how it would be possible to get genuinely worthwhile TA qualifications unless you were already working as a TA. That said, the fact you'd bothered to take any qualification might make you stand out from the hundreds of applicants for every post. But volunteering would probably count for more.

As a minimum, you need GCSE or equivalent in maths and English, and experience in the classroom. Verifiable computer literacy is a definite advantage.

I sort of wish I had NVQs, because most jobs at my level do now advertise with formal requirements, so it would be difficult for me to find a job anywhere else. However, like any qualification, they don't offer a free lunch in the workplace, and should, I humbly suggest, be best considered as training in the analytical and reflective practice required for lifelong professional development.

kingfisherblue

In my area, most TAs train whilst they are working as volunteers. They also have a good level of general education. OP, I realise that this is a forum and you may well have a good level of education, but reading your posts, you appear to need some help with grammar and punctuation. TAs help children with their written English, and need to know when to use capital letters, exclamation marks, apostrophes, etc, but your posts do not indicate that you can do this. I apologise if I am wrong, but if you do struggle with written English, maybe you could consider a course in this area before starting a TA course.

Carfal

Many schools will expect Teaching Assistants to have or be prepared to study for GCSEs or equivalent in Maths and English. Some local colleges run TA training courses but experience, personal qualities and an ability to relate to children are probably more important.