How do you become a 2nd level teacher?

glenn3ie

Could somebody please explain the H.Dip course that you do after your degree if you want to teach in 2nd level schools? Whats involved in the course? Where can you do it? How long is it? etc..

Thanks in advance.

spurious

See http://www.careerdirections.ie/CD/DBAllCareerFrame.jsp?id=618
from one of the stickies.

There is also now a DCU part-time H. Dip. in Ed. run in the evenings over two years.

There is also the direct way into teaching which would be to do a teaching degree in a specialist subject - Home Ec., Rel. Ed., Woodwork, P.E. etc. Graduates of those colleges do not have to do the H. Dip. as Education is part of their degree. Art teachers do a course specifically for Art and Design teaching following their primary degree.

JasperMcEwan

You can teach in a VEC school without a HDip though it is an advantage. These schools often have adult classes FETAC VTOS etc.

Toto Wolfcastle

JasperMcEwan wrote:

You can teach in a VEC school without a HDip though it is an advantage. These schools often have adult classes FETAC VTOS etc.

Do you not need to do the Teastas Gaeilge (formally Ceardteastais) to teach in some VECs?? Just a thought.

The H.Dip, now know as the PGDE (Postgraduate Diploma in Education) runs from September to June. (in NUIs anyway) You can apply to PAC to do it in NUIG, UCC, Maynooth and UCD I think. You can also do it as Gaeilge in Galway. I'm pretty sure you can do it in Trinity too. Over the year you generally attend lectures in the afternoon/evening and teach during the day a few days a week, unless you are on block release teaching practice. It is a vey demanding course, plenty of assignments and projects, as well as plenty of pointless lectures. It's an enjoyable course all the same.

I'm only speaking from my experience in Galway, so it might be different elsewhere.

A word of warning: Make sure you have two subjects to degree level that are recognised by the teaching council. A lot of people were caught out because they thought they could teach a subject they did in first year to Junior Cert level. This is no longer the case, and now people are stuck doing a subject for credit that they will not be able to teach.

Anymore questions??

gaeilgegrinds

Yes Ceard Teastas is needed, asked today just to be sure I'm correct! Seemingly from September all new teachers will need PGDE there too.

Orange

University of Limerick also has a number of Post Grads in Education in languages, pe, music, business and technology.

You have to apply directly to UL.

rainbowtrout

The link below is from the Teaching Council of Ireland website. It gives a list of all the degrees currently available in 3rd level institutions which are recognised for teaching purposes and more importantly which subjects they allow you to teach.


http://www.teachingcouncil.ie/_fileupload/Publications/Autoquals_Updated_17_August_2007_31388476.doc