Teaching as a career

SiHH

SiHH

SiHH

Soldato
Joined
4 Mar 2004
Posts
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Location
Hemel Hempstead, Herts, U
I am looking at a wide array of different careers at the moment to move into and at the moment this is one that im trying to get my head around.

I do not have a degree and judging by the tda.gov.uk website it would seem I need an honours degree to even start training.

I have 10 years experience in IT, in both the public and private sector and from a support view, training I guess has been part of those 10 years quite significantly.

Would any employer take this into consideration for say a 'Graduate Teacher Program' to enable me to earn as I train, or is it 'set in stone' that a degree is a must ??
 
Hey mate I'm in a very similar position. I would consider a degree in the subject you intend to teach almost essential. I could be wrong but I was under the impression that the Graduate Teacher Training was for people who had already attained a degree?

I'm about to embark in 3 years of structured chaos with an open uni degree in History - I've come at it from the IT world too. If you fancy a chat, catch me on MSN.
 
The graduate teacher program is just that, for graduates. There are other schemes for teacher training and they take longer is my understanding. Sorry I do not know a lot about it.
 
philstanbridge said:
Hey mate I'm in a very similar position. I would consider a degree in the subject you intend to teach almost essential. I could be wrong but I was under the impression that the Graduate Teacher Training was for people who had already attained a degree?

I'm about to embark in 3 years of structured chaos with an open uni degree in History - I've come at it from the IT world too. If you fancy a chat, catch me on MSN.
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Hi, thanks for your reply.

I was just reading you post about the OU actually - sounds great, good luck with that !

Im not entirely sure whether i'd want to teach secondary (ie. specific subject) or whether id be more suited to Primary education (general subjects).

I have a horrible feeling im going to need a degree and the OU seems to do one BEd. The thing that scares me is that part time it could take up to 6 years !

I have a mortgage and a son to look after so full time education is not really a viable option.

Its either change career or stay in a job that I hate.

Hmm.
 
iraiguana said:
The graduate teacher program is just that, for graduates.
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Seems strange how a degree is so favoured compared to 'life-experience'.

I know very studious people who could pass any exam thrown at them but give them a child to bring up and theyd make a hash of it.

:confused:
 
if you do become a teacher, go to a good school and dont have too little discipline but let the kids have freedom. It worked for the best teachers at my school.
 
salami1212 said:
if you do become a teacher, go to a good school and dont have too little discipline but let the kids have freedom. It worked for the best teachers at my school.
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In my opinion there are three main types of teacher.

1) The teacher who puts the fear of living god into you, yet you somehow manage to respect them because they are accurate teachers and get the important things across

2) The teacher who is your friend, very laid back who you respect but maybe dont work as hard as you could do for them

3) The teacher who has no respect, maybe a nice person but has something about them which makes the kids want to play up.


I see myself as 2 really.
 
Moses99p said:
There are loads of people teaching that don't have degrees... they tend to be a bit rubbish though! :(. It's pretty bad, there's quite a few in further education colleges and they are AWFUL.
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I think secondary teachers should have degrees as it gives them ultimately, great knowledge on their chosen subject.

Primary education however doesnt require this so much.

I'd be interested to know how they got into teaching without a degree ?
 
SiHH said:
Seems strange how a degree is so favoured compared to 'life-experience'.

I know very studious people who could pass any exam thrown at them but give them a child to bring up and theyd make a hash of it.

:confused:
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Because teaching is a profession, a certain level of academic excellence is required. You might have plenty of life experience, but how can you mark kids' essays when you haven't proved that your own essay writing is up to scratch?
 
scorza said:
Because teaching is a profession, a certain level of academic excellence is required. You might have plenty of life experience, but how can you mark kids' essays when you haven't proved that your own essay writing is up to scratch?
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Well I got good GCSE's and being able to write documents for large IT organisations should prove this.

With primary education which is likely where i'd prefer, this is not such an issue.

I understand your point though.
 
SiHH said:
Well I got good GCSE's and being able to write documents for large IT organisations should prove this.

With primary education which is likely where i'd prefer, this is not such an issue.

I understand your point though.
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No offense, but the standard required for GCSE essay writing is very low - I did them too, and the business style of writing is very different to the academic style.

The point of a degree is to demonstrate that you are capable of motivating yourself to learn and study by yourself. I personally think it is important that all teachers have demonstrated these qualities before they introduce the nation's children to learning and studying. Sure a degree is no guarantee that you'd make a good teacher, but it is a start.
 
I'm in the same boat - I worked as an ICT manager for 12 months in a secondary school in England and I can honestly say it was one of the best jobs I ever had. I would teach students how to use the computers amongst other things and earnt respect. But I only have GCSE's and 2 A Levels and I now need to "prove" myself by getting a degree before I can apply for the teacher training.

Just to add, my cousin in quite high up in a primary school and she says you need to prepare much more in advance at this level. Secondary is much easier in this respect.
 
Yeah im afraid I dont get people who are asking, 'why do I need a degree in the subject I want to teach?', well isn't it obvious ? You need to have a depth of understanding and complexity, ideally way above the level your trying to teach it at. Of course you can work in a bussiness such as I.T. and then teach it, as you know its in's and out's, and would be knowledgeable on the subject your teaching, but I guess a degree is designed to really push limits on whats understandable, at least in degrees that matter anyway.
 
What about being a lecturer e.g. Further Education rather than a primary/secondary school teacher, what are the requirements?
 
HEADRAT said:
What about being a lecturer e.g. Further Education rather than a primary/secondary school teacher, what are the requirements?
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PHd miniumum and a acedemic/scientific leader in your chosen subject, much much harder (If you want to teach at degree level)

A-level Id say not too disimilar to GCSE, but would probably require more training on the teachers part and/or more than a degree, a masters in said subject id imagine
 
Moses99p said:
You're confusing FE with HE... for Further Education the requirements aren't very high at all... as in I don't think you even need a degree.
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FE means above GCSE, given you need a degree to teach GCSE (ideally) you quite obviously need a degree to teach a-level or GNVQ + levels.

Also my A-levels were wayyy harder than my degree was ! lol
 
Well is what im trying say, we should have teachers that have degrees and are VERY knowledgeable in the area there teaching. Looking at some sites, it seems FE is very underfunded and falling apart tbh
 
I start a PGCE in secondary ICT in September. Had to have a 2:2 degree (got a 2:1) in a relevant subject and some experience of being in a school (had 8 months from my uni placement). Also had to pass a subject knowledge exam and a pretty intimidating interview back in December.

Hopefully it'll be al worth it though :)
 
The degree is simply for the PGCE program. This is the fastest way to recruit new people with a large broad knowledge about a particular field.

We are not debating if a degree holds more merit than actual real world experience.

It is simply stated that the government program would like to recruit fresh graduates in the area of study to teach at higher levels eg gcse and a-level.

This is very important for things like sciences as these subjects are taught at a basic interpretation which is fundamentally wrong, but get the point across. You need people who understand how the process of building up complex ideas can be taught and why it is taught that way as you have gone through it.

You can not just throw portions of advanced science at kids as they will not know the basic tools to interpret it!
 
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