What does Teacher Training 'Look' like in England?

There is a lot of misconception around the qualifications you need to teach in the UK. Many of you will have heard of the PGCE, but that is not a qualification that will allow you to teach in main-stream schools. Rather you need Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). QTS is gained through meeting the Teacher Standards. These standards are by which a beginner teacher is assessed. A beginner teacher can evidence meeting these standards by doing a course, that allows them to practice their teaching in a minimum of two different schools, and across at least two different key stages of educations. Therefore, a teacher training course will be at least 2/3's of the length of the course in school and behaving as a teacher. Once earned, QTS is transferable around the UK and between subjects and phases (Primary, Secondary) of education.

Some courses will also offer an academic qualifications - the Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE). This usually consists of about 4-5 essays, assignments or projects that is the study of teaching and learning.

Most courses will combine the QTS training with the PGCE research. Teacher training courses can be found here - https://www.gov.uk/find-postgraduate-teacher-training-courses

Help to find the best teacher training course for you can be found here - https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/teacher-training-adviser/sign_up/identity

Reply 1

-AlphaOmega-

6

Thanks for this! I am interested in obtaining a PGCE as well as QTS. I understand it is possible to do this in 1 year?

How are such programmes structured? Assuming this is around 10 months, are the first 2-3 months all lectures/theory, and then two stints of 3-4 months teaching/assisting, or do you have around 1-2 days of lectures/theory per week and the other 3-4 days are for the teaching/assisting, and this is the same for almost every week throughout the course? Thank you to anyone who answers this!

Reply 2

Angelil

19

Original post by Get into Teaching

There is a lot of misconception around the qualifications you need to teach in the UK. Many of you will have heard of the PGCE, but that is not a qualification that will allow you to teach in main-stream schools. Rather you need Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). QTS is gained through meeting the Teacher Standards. These standards are by which a beginner teacher is assessed. A beginner teacher can evidence meeting these standards by doing a course, that allows them to practice their teaching in a minimum of two different schools, and across at least two different key stages of educations. Therefore, a teacher training course will be at least 2/3's of the length of the course in school and behaving as a teacher. Once earned, QTS is transferable around the UK and between subjects and phases (Primary, Secondary) of education.

Some courses will also offer an academic qualifications - the Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE). This usually consists of about 4-5 essays, assignments or projects that is the study of teaching and learning.

Most courses will combine the QTS training with the PGCE research. Teacher training courses can be found here - https://www.gov.uk/find-postgraduate-teacher-training-courses

Help to find the best teacher training course for you can be found here - https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/teacher-training-adviser/sign_up/identity

Very important point indeed - thank you. It is QTS specifically that employers should look for and in my view non-PGCE routes are not sufficiently promoted. I gained QTS via Assessment-Only in 2014 and it still narks me off that hardly anyone seems to have heard of it even though I still worked hard for my QTS (and had 6 years’ teaching experience behind me at the time when I gained it).

OP

Original post by -AlphaOmega-

Thanks for this! I am interested in obtaining a PGCE as well as QTS. I understand it is possible to do this in 1 year?

How are such programmes structured? Assuming this is around 10 months, are the first 2-3 months all lectures/theory, and then two stints of 3-4 months teaching/assisting, or do you have around 1-2 days of lectures/theory per week and the other 3-4 days are for the teaching/assisting, and this is the same for almost every week throughout the course? Thank you to anyone who answers this!

Hello @-AlphaOmega-

Most Teacher Training courses will combine the theory as leant on the PGCE section of the course, with the practical application of it in the QTS part, and so most courses that offer both will begin in Sept and end in about May. (This will vary between providers) Typically there are two schools placements, one being about 8 weeks, and the other about 16. Depending on how the provider structures the course, there will be taught elements of your subject knowledge, and then there would be sessions on pedagogy.

An outline of the course I did was from Sept, 3 days in Uni with two days in school until Oct Half Term, then from HT to Christmas, I was in school full time, and working towards meeting the QTS standards. In Jan, I return to Uni for 3 days, and then my second school placement for 2 days, until Feb, when I was in school FT again. This was up until me completing the course, in about May, and then I began my first teaching job in June.

It's important to speak with the course providers to whom you wish to apply and ask for an outline of their time-tables, and I've seen some where you return to the first placement in the Summer term. They all differ quite a lot and so it's worth doing the research before application! :smile:

If you'd like help with choosing the best course for you, then a Get into Teaching Adviser can help a lot!

All the best, Jane

What does Teacher Training 'Look' like in England?

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