PGCE in further education

Hi everyone, need advice for a good friend.

Basically, she is planning to do a PGCE in english, further education level.

How is that like compared to secondary or primary school level. advantaged/disadvantages ?

Is the pay better ?

Cheers

The major disadvantage is a school PGCE entitles you to teach in the FE sector but an FE PGCE does not allow you to teach in school.

A typical FE teacher earns less than a typical schoolteacher (the difference is not so apparent in the early years of a teaching career).

Many thanks! Very interesting to say the least. So am guessing a school PGCSE is more intensive than a FE PGCE ?

Also, what is the average starting wage in the early years of teaching in FE ? And they are also being hit by the public sector pay freeze, right ?

many thanks

The major disadvantage is a school PGCE entitles you to teach in the FE sector but an FE PGCE does not allow you to teach in school.

A typical FE teacher earns less than a typical schoolteacher (the difference is not so apparent in the early years of a teaching career).

Hi.. Does a PGCE in FE not offer QTS aswell? In many teaching job descriptions all that is asked for (normally is a recognised teaching qualification or (QTS).

I can't imagine the pay being dramatically different. The hours certainly will be different, as you will be teaching less and preparing more. You could get your PhD and teach at a University. I'd imagine it would be a lot easier in terms of employment.

You also get a 'QTLS' from those PGCE's. Which allow you to teach within a School, unless they specify that they want the 'QTS' only.

I'm extremely interested in Teaching at College/A-level, not much interest at Secondary. One of the main reasons being that my degree isn't an essential GCSE (Social Sciences). Although, I believe you can get Teaching Courses that allow you to teach something you did at A-level. For example, I actually did mainly Computing, IT and Business. So I can essentially teach those if I did an enhancement course.

Pay is definitely lower across the whole FE sector because it is so diverse and not subject to national pay scales in the same way as primary and secondary education, which are all funded by the Department for Education (DfE), and can therefore be bartered for by the various teaching unions. FE is funded by another government department (BIS) altogether and split into separate things by the Skills Funding Agency. In addition, despite this relatively similiar central pot of funding, your employer could be anyone.

You could work for your local council on lifelong learning programmes or teaching GCSEs at night time or basic skills to immigrants. You could work for a 'normal' FE college. Or you could be teaching in a prison. Each will hire and pay differently and have its own structure for teaching. For instance, I worked in a prison with strict working hours: 08:00-16:15. Teaching was broken into two really long slots in the morning and afternoon, but you have a big break in between. (Little bit more complicated if you teach literacy or numeracy). This means you have few lessons, but they are obviously very long. The gap in between includes lunch but most use it - along with dedicated time on Friday afternoon where prisoners do not come down for lessons - to do administrative work as well. This means few people ever take anything home. But there are massive draw backs, minus working with prisoners themselves. You cannot just pop off the premise to have a smoke or get something non-work related done because of the location of many prisons (e.g. pop to the bank or post office). It is very much an exchange of time for money. Many people will hate this. But others will love the ability to actually know something about their students (too much in some cases!). Lots of teachers involved in lifelong learning have to continually compromise their expectations because childcare, job, partner, other obligations etc. always come first. And some people will hate the idea of dealing with little ****s in a normal college. All very different environments and students to deal with, all with good and bad points.

Schools cannot specify that they want QTS only. That is illegal. If you have ever come across a school that does that then you should inform the headteacher or, if that gets you no where, contact the local council or DfE depending on what kind of school it is.

That reassures me for the future! So I can still teach perfectly fine within a school with the other Teaching Status?

Thank you for your points. However, here's another question; aren't Schools suppose to be changing anyway? Students must be kept on until they're 17 or 18, which basically means that they must do their A-levels in School. Or, alternatively, another Level 3 qualification (NVQ, BTEC). Wouldn't that change and make A-level teachers a lot easier in terms of employment?

Also, can you teach what you did at A-level once you have the teaching status? As I'm planning on doing Social Sciences (Psychology and Sociology). However, I have IT/Computing at A-level standard. As that is a National Subject now.

Legislation has changed since Mr M wrote his comment. A PGCE in FE grants QTLS, not QTS. But the government have made this irrelevant by saying those with QTLS and registered with the IfL are fine to teach in schools. See the relevant information on the Department for Education website here.

Yes, QTLS is fine. Those that have QTLS tend to be the more academic teachers in FE anyway as more vocational teachers tend to qualify in house (i.e. it not always practical to expect a bricklayer to have a teaching qualification before he teaches, but that obviously does not stop him from 'teaching').

You are right to point out that compulsory education is increasing to 18 which makes the QTS distinction even less tenable than it was already, especially given the fact that some FE colleges have been teaching under 16s for a while anyway. As far as employment is concerned, I believe post-16 education funding is being equalised so secondary schools will now get what colleges get per student (i.e. less than they are used to). I think this will impact what post-16 choices some schools offer; they will probably look to prune subjects that are not also in the national curriculum. But I can see a lot more students opting to go to colleges instead where staff flexibility means the college can probably offer more subjects.

You can teach whatever subject your college or school wants you to once you are qualified. Most people do not do this for practical reasons (i.e. they lack the subject knowledge). But if you want to work in FE then it is probably best to widen your options and say you are willing to teach x, y or z. Having half decent GCSEs in English or mathematics will make you qualified to take some classes! Likewise, A levels in computing does not mean you would necessarily take an A level class in computing; it might mean doing some IT classes with people doing an apprenticeship (in some sort of functional skills framework) as the government wants everyone to have level at least two qualifications in English, IT and mathematics.