Need honest opinions...

EJ07

I have a degree from UCC finished in 1996. I majored in Economics and have a minor in sociology. In first year I also did history and psychology. I also have a fas course in IT. I have been working for the last 10 years in IT and have been very successful working with a large American multinational..
I am now investigating secondary school teaching..

1. Am I too old at 33 to think about applying for a higher dip in ED.
2. Am I limited in the subjects I can teach?
3. Concerned about the low number of business subject degrees given the dip
4. I know I read the points system but don’t fully understand it – can’t even remember the modules I took...
5. Should I really complete some sub work to have any chance of getting dip – this would lead to giving up my perm job in the hope to get something down the line..
6. Would by work exp be taken into account?

rainbowtrout

EJ07 wrote: »

I have a degree from UCC finished in 1996. I majored in Economics and have a minor in sociology. In first year I also did history and psychology. I also have a fas course in IT. I have been working for the last 10 years in IT and have been very successful working with a large American multinational..
I am now investigating secondary school teaching..

1. Am I too old at 33 to think about applying for a higher dip in ED.
2. Am I limited in the subjects I can teach?
3. Concerned about the low number of business subject degrees given the dip
4. I know I read the points system but don’t fully understand it – can’t even remember the modules I took...
5. Should I really complete some sub work to have any chance of getting dip – this would lead to giving up my perm job in the hope to get something down the line..
6. Would by work exp be taken into account?

A degree in Economics would allow you to teach Economics to LC and Business Studies to JC. Sociology would also allow you to teach CSPE (more than likely, don't take it as gospel, check it out). The link below is to the Teaching Council website, it shows which degrees are recognised for teaching purposes and what subjects you can teach with your degree.


http://www.teachingcouncil.ie/_fileupload/TC_Publications/Autoquals_Updated_20_Dec_2007_63449334.doc

In reality it can be a little different. Many teachers teaching IT don't have any formal qualifications so that end of it is not really a problem as IT is not an exam subject. It would probably be better to have a look at the teaching council website or contact them and see what they have to say about your qualifications, or contact the Department.

Applying for the Dip is random enough in the respect that they may want more of a certain subject in a given year, your best bet there is to apply to all the colleges offering it and see how you get on. I think it's called the Postgraduate Certificate in Education in recent years and in UL is the Graduate Diploma in Business Education or something like that. I have a number of friends who did business studies and all applied for the dip and were accepted first time. Being older might possibly go in your favour,especially having work experience. If you are applying at 33 to do the dip, you are serious about it, not just adding another qualification to the list at 21 and going 'ok, what will I do now that i've finished my degree'. Two of the teachers employed in my school in the last number of years were in a similar position, one 28 and the other 37-38 doing the dip.


Can't really say about giving up your job, only you can decide that. Subbing is an advantage but again, as I said , there are plenty of students who go straight into the dip from college without any teaching experience so you certainly wouldn't be alone in that respect.

The other thing is can you see yourself in a classroom teaching a group of 15 year olds how to do a Trial Balance. If you can get some holidays from work maybe you could go into a local school and ask to sit in on some classes, some principals will oblige and some will not to see what you think

Rosita

EJ07 wrote: »

1. Am I too old at 33 to think about applying for a higher dip in ED.

2. Am I limited in the subjects I can teach?

4. I know I read the points system but don’t fully understand it – can’t even remember the modules I took.

5. Should I really complete some sub work to have any chance of getting dip – this would lead to giving up my perm job in the hope to get something down the line.

6. Would by work exp be taken into account?

I am not a teacher but I think I will go into it next year so I have done plenty of homework (pun!:eek:) on the matter of applying for the PGDE (H.Dip) and can answer these with reasonable authority.

1) No. What has age go to do with anything? The only factor to consider is that you will be on a lower salary at your age than you would have been had you started as a teacher from scratch. But again, you are either happy with the salary or you aren't. 'What might have beens' shouldn't influence the decision.

2) Yes. This is perhaps your biggest problem. It's one thing qualifying for and studying for your teaching diploma, but your subjects probably mean that you would not be in very high demand.

4) To be honest you don't really need to understand how the points system works in minute detail - I certainly don't. All you need to be able to do is calculate your points. There are two categories, subjects for which honours are available and subjects where honours are not available. In your case I imagine it is one of each - a major and minor. So it depends on your grades after that. You would need a very high grade in your major subject I would think - as the points for the minor will be lower - to be in the ballpark for the teaching diploma.

5) Sub work would help greatly if you are low on points but I don't believe teaching esxperience per se help your application.

6) No, unless it is sub teaching leading to extra points. (Check out www.pac.ie for more on this.)

Rosita

rainbowtrout wrote: »

Being older might possibly go in your favour,especially having work experience.

Only problem is that the PGDE application doesn't ask about work/life experience. It looks at academic qualifications and verifiable teaching experience only.

spurious

The only real drawback with starting teaching late is the crazy length of the salary scale. It takes 22 years to reach the top of it.