Post Grad courses in Uk

piobhan

Help and advice wanted please.

Background: I graduated in 2008 with a 2.1 honours degree in commerce from NUIG. I dont have honours Irish, got a B in pass in 2005.
For the LC I did Irish, English, Maths, French, Business, Accounting, Economics. 440 points
I am currently working in a finance position but I can't see myself at it long term and teaching is something I have wanted to do for years but never done anything about it.


Basically I am looking to do a post grad in Primary teaching in the UK and teach in the UK and possibly return to Ireland in the long term possibly.
Have I all ready missed the deadline for applying for courses for Sept 2013? The whole process is very confusing and daunting at first glance, Im just wondering is there anyone who can help me and provide some advice?
Thanks for reading, any help/comments would be much appreciated.

byhookorbycrook

To be honest, the job situation is so bad, I'd really encourage you to think again.

piobhan

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

To be honest, the job situation is so bad, I'd really encourage you to think again.

I understand that the job situation is so bad in Ireland. I wouldn't mind teaching in the UK.
I am looking for some advice really on the post grad system in the UK. I know i have missed the original deadline of the 6th of dec for applications for sept 13 courses but late applications do still be accepted as far as i know. If i knew there was a good opportunity that i could still get on a course for sept 13, i would leave my current job.
Any advice would be very helpful.
Can anyone recommend somebody/organisation to seek advice off

Jimmy Iovine

piobhan wrote: »

I understand that the job situation is so bad in Ireland. I wouldn't mind teaching in the UK.
I am looking for some advice really on the post grad system in the UK. I know i have missed the original deadline of the 6th of dec for applications for sept 13 courses but late applications do still be accepted as far as i know. If i knew there was a good opportunity that i could still get on a course for sept 13, i would leave my current job.
Any advice would be very helpful.
Can anyone recommend somebody/organisation to seek advice off

Have a look on The Student Room's education forum. You will get a better answer there than you will on here.

A lot of the interviews for certain colleges will have taken place already. Don't give up hope though. I know of two guys in my class in Bangor who got on the course a week before it started due to people dropping out at the very last minute.

Check the GTTR website to see which colleges are still offering places. I just had a look there myself and there are quite a few still showing vacancies. Whether or not they actually have vacancies is another thing. Ring them up to find out for sure.

Best of luck.

_ariadne

Go onto the GTTR website to get an idea of the different courses available. Although I believe the initial deadline has passed, most will still be holding interviews until the summer. There has been a decline in applications since the higher fees (9000sterling) were introduced last year.
I am currently doing a PGCE and didn't interview for my place until May last year and there were still many places.

The big thing you will need before applying to the UK is experience in a UK classroom. This is crucial. You say you wouldn't mind teaching in the UK but this is impossible to know until you experience the realities of a typical UK classroom, it is incredibly challenging. In addition you need to understand the huge amounts of planning and assessment that are required.

If you have any contacts in the UK try to use the to get in contact with a school and arrange to spend a few weeks (typically the requirement is 2) observing there. Observing in an Irish classroom would also be useful but it is unlikely to count as experience (mine didn't) and it won't give you an accurate picture of teaching in the UK.

I hope this doesn't put you off! I also did a commerce degree and absolutely love teaching and know it is what I want to do. If you have any questions feel free to PM me.

Jimmy Iovine

Some places allow you to complete your observation period after you have the interview. Not all of them require it at the interview.

You'll get a £5,455 (or thereabouts) of an EU grant. You have to fill out a form called the EU12N form, I think, and then send it away. That leaves you with a more reasonable three and a half grand for which you can take out a loan if you want.

A lot of places are moving towards, or already have in place, holding literacy and numeracy tests at the interview. They are about 40 minutes long. We had to do them in college. My college, Bangor, will be starting them from this year. The Maths was simple. I got 19 out of 20. I'm pretty sure the cut off was 10/11. Any lower than that and they give you extra help.

The English test is a test of your sentence structure, punctuation and ability to understand a passage of text. Again, I found it very easy. Some people were called out of the class for extra help. I've no idea what the cut off for that one is.

I don't what will happen now that it's being done at the interview. There are some people on the course who make absolutely horrific errors in English. Their lesson plans are riddled with spelling and grammatical mistakes. Whether they will be weeded out with the new system or not I have no idea.