Last minute application PGCE Design Technology?!

Hello!

I've been thinking about training to teach DT at secondary school level for a while now, and finally made up my mind to go for it. I thought I'd left it too late now to apply for 2019 intake but I found out super recently that it's not quite too late yet, so I'm keen to apply now and get on the course ASAP if I can - of course I will wait until 2020 if I have to but I'd much rather get on with it now I've made up my mind for sure!

However, I'm not sure if my application will be good enough - I don't actually have an A Level or GCSE in Design Technology (my school didn't offer it properly) but my degree was in Animation, which consisted obviously of a lot of design work, including 3D design courses and modules.

I have good grades (all As) in my A Levels and GCSEs (including maths and english GCSE) but I'm not sure if that means much... I graduated a few years ago and a Masters degree but it's in an unrelated subject (of course I have a lot of transferable skills which I know would be really useful, but on paper it just doesn't look very relevant to teaching or design!)...

I have 1 day of experience in a secondary school observing DT lessons and 1 day of experience in a primary school where I helped teach a themed day on Art/Design and I've passed the Eng/Maths skills tests, but I don't know if this is enough experience to show that I'm really serious about teaching. However, as it's now the summer hols I'm a bit stuck in terms of getting more school experience! I saw some training courses don't start until late September so I guess my hope is that maybe I get a conditional offer and can squeeze in some more school experience before I start.

Basically, do you think it's still worth applying for 2019 entry anyway? If so any recommendations or advice? I would be really grateful, also if anyone here already is training for or teaching DT I'd love to hear from you too, just general info or anything! :smile:

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TL;DR - is it worth applying this late (Animation graduate) for PGCE secondary Design Technology with only 2 days school experience (one of which is primary)?

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 1

SarcAndSpark

There's no harm in putting in an application and seeing what happens. I didn't do DT, and it wasn't offered by my university- but I know people in science who applied with minimal experience, got a place and did really well! I also know of people who've applied with a lot of experience and didn't get a place or struggled when on the course. The interviews tend to look at potential as well as your experience/background, and as long as your academics and PS are ok, you'll usually get an interview.

I know that time is pretty tight now, but it may be worth contact some unis with your degree transcript to see if they'd consider you suitable for DT. This means that you're not wasting your time applying to people who won't interview you.

You'll also need to get two referees sorted who are willing to write you a reference pretty quickly!

Good luck!