Teacher Training - Uni led PGCE or SCITT PGCE

Hi all. I've had 2 offers for teacher training, one is uni led and the other is SCITT. Both lead to a PGCE and are 1 year.

My question is, which one is better? I am planning to work abroad and I want to be solid as a teacher. What would you recommend and which option is most respected?

I'm aware that SCITT is more demanding, is this true?

Reply 1

Get into Teaching

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Original post by ibn__m7md

Hi all. I've had 2 offers for teacher training, one is uni led and the other is SCITT. Both lead to a PGCE and are 1 year.
My question is, which one is better? I am planning to work abroad and I want to be solid as a teacher. What would you recommend and which option is most respected?
I'm aware that SCITT is more demanding, is this true?

Hi @ibn__m7md,

Well done on receiving your offers. Both SCITT and university led PGCEs with QTS will give you the same qualification at the end of the course. Both are run in a similar way - 24 weeks on placement over at least two different schools, probably three academic essays. The difference is who is delivering the training. If your course is university led, the university will coordinate your course and accredit your qualification at the end. A school based course is run by a group of schools (often a Multi Academy Trust). School based providers organise your course and often provide the academic part of the PGCE themselves, but they may sometimes use a university for accrediation of the course, but not always. Your choice is which is best for you. Think about where the placement schools will be. With any PGCE, the majority of your time is on placement, not at the 'base'. Do you like a large university setting or do you like a smaller cohort like a SCITT? To be honest, when I did my teacher training almost 20 years ago, I chose the SCITT route but it was purely down to travelling distance to placements. I found that SCITT is as equally regarded as university led. The choice is yours and both options will get you the same results at the end.

Good luck!
Tracy

Reply 2

MrsSFoodTech

I did uni-led, and the thing I've taken away the most is a group of friends who all teach the same subject. We were such a small cohort (6) that we gelled really well. We spent weeks together at the start, as well as mid-way through and once every week. There were three others in our subject who were SCITT, but we only saw them once a week, and no matter how much we tried to involve them, they weren't interested.

Now, that's not to say you won't make friends at your placement who are also trainees, but we've now got a small support network of friends who have been through the same thing, as well as a whole variety of different resources and ideas from different placements as well as where we all work now.

At my second placement there were a couple of SCITT trainees, but they didn't really gel with each other. One would come to spend time with me at break sometimes but that's because their form mentor was my subject mentor, which is why we clicked. We've not kept in touch either.

My girls and meet up every month or so for brunch and talk daily.

I'm also a uni-person, I love everything about it (I'm also almost 40 so it's not a going out drinking/socialising thing) and would still be there now if I could afford to just stay a forever student 🤣

Reply 3

ibn__m7md

Original post by ChammyFTT

I did uni-led, and the thing I've taken away the most is a group of friends who all teach the same subject. We were such a small cohort (6) that we gelled really well. We spent weeks together at the start, as well as mid-way through and once every week. There were three others in our subject who were SCITT, but we only saw them once a week, and no matter how much we tried to involve them, they weren't interested.
Now, that's not to say you won't make friends at your placement who are also trainees, but we've now got a small support network of friends who have been through the same thing, as well as a whole variety of different resources and ideas from different placements as well as where we all work now.
At my second placement there were a couple of SCITT trainees, but they didn't really gel with each other. One would come to spend time with me at break sometimes but that's because their form mentor was my subject mentor, which is why we clicked. We've not kept in touch either.
My girls and meet up every month or so for brunch and talk daily.
I'm also a uni-person, I love everything about it (I'm also almost 40 so it's not a going out drinking/socialising thing) and would still be there now if I could afford to just stay a forever student 🤣