Doing a PGCE in PE without a Sports degree

Hi,

I’m 27 and I’m looking to go into teaching as a change of career. Although I have a BA and an MA in English, I’m actually hoping to become a PE teacher in secondary schools.

Sport is my greatest passion, and I have a strong background in playing/coaching, up to semi-professional level. I’d much rather teach PE than English.

I understand that many PGCE courses, specialising in PE, require a degree with at least 50% sports content. I only took a couple of optional modules from the sports department as an undergraduate, with the rest being in English.

I’ve reached out to a few universities and they’ve said I’m welcome to apply to the PGCE PE programme, but I will be up against people with sport-related degrees.

I wondered if anyone here has gone down a similar path, and successfully got onto a PGCE PE course with a different degree?

I’m hoping my lifelong experience in playing/coaching several sports will be enough to get me on the programme, or is this unlikely?

Thank you.

P.S. I'm new on here so if you think this question would be better off in a different section of the site, please let me know.

Hi,

I’m 27 and I’m looking to go into teaching as a change of career. Although I have a BA and an MA in English, I’m actually hoping to become a PE teacher in secondary schools.

Sport is my greatest passion, and I have a strong background in playing/coaching, up to semi-professional level. I’d much rather teach PE than English.

I understand that many PGCE courses, specialising in PE, require a degree with at least 50% sports content. I only took a couple of optional modules from the sports department as an undergraduate, with the rest being in English.

I’ve reached out to a few universities and they’ve said I’m welcome to apply to the PGCE PE programme, but I will be up against people with sport-related degrees.

I wondered if anyone here has gone down a similar path, and successfully got onto a PGCE PE course with a different degree?

I’m hoping my lifelong experience in playing/coaching several sports will be enough to get me on the programme, or is this unlikely?

Thank you.

P.S. I'm new on here so if you think this question would be better off in a different section of the site, please let me know.

Hello @Aspiring_PGCE

While there is no need to think you wouldn't be considered for a teacher training course in PE, there could be greater benefit in considering training in English, (I'm thinking of numbers of available places on courses, financial intensives, employability on graduation) and then looking for jobs where you'd be able to teach both. It's only for the purpose of the training that you choose a subject, and then learn how to teach. Once you have QTS you are considered to gave gained the necessary experience and knowledge to be able to teach any subject.

Call 0800 389 2500 to discuss your options with an experienced teacher who can also help you create a strong application for a teacher training course. It's a free service and so you've nothing to lose!

Wishing you all the best, Jane

Have you thought about primary teaching- your English background would be a real asset, and you would get the chance to teach PE too, and maybe even take the lead for the subject within school?

PE is the one secondary subject where there isn't a shortage of applicants. Unfortunately, I think it's very unlikely that you'd be able to find a place on a PE PGCE course. Teaching PE isn't just about sports coaching- GCSE PE and level 3 PE/sports science courses tend to involve elements of physiology, biology and psychology too, and the uni would need to feel you'd have the depth of knowledge required to teach this too.

I'm not aware of a uni that lets you train to teach in a subject with a completely unrelated degree without doing an SKE (subject knowledge enhancement) course first- but these aren't available in PE.

Have you thought about primary teaching- your English background would be a real asset, and you would get the chance to teach PE too, and maybe even take the lead for the subject within school?

It's also possible, depending on the sports you are able to coach, that you could get employment as an unqualified teacher at a private school.

Most of the advice you guys give on here is good, and that's great, but you keep saying that people can train to teach subjects they don't have a degree in- even subjects where no SKE is on offer.

Can you actually point to a single university which would allow someone to train to teach PE with an English degree?

The mandatory requirements for entry into a teacher training course is that someone has a degree, have GCSEs in Eng/Maths (and Sci for Primary stage teaching). Everything else is subject to the teacher training course provider discretion and entry requirements.