pe teaching alternative route

leavincert111

Im doing my leaving cert and want to become a qualified pe teacher I am involved in many sports teams and have done since I was young. At the moment the direct route to UL or somewhere is unrealistic. I am looking for information about what courses I can do and where to qualify for the masters of physical education for 2 add on years in UL I know you can study health and leisure in IT Tralee but that's very far away what sports related course in Waterford IT for example would qualify me for the masters in UL?
also going to uk is not an option
any help would be really appreciated thanks in advance

joeharte123

I assume it is the B.sc in Physical Education in UL your talking about? From what I hear it is a very good course. DCU also have Physical Education with Biology. I'm not sure how many points these course are now but last time I checked they were around 460-500.

Like any area of teaching now, things aren't too sharp with lots of graduates going to UK and Dubai to teach. Doing the UL programme would stand to you as your training to teach PE from day 1.

Waterford have a course on Sports Coaching and Performance but this would not give you the qualification to teach PE alone. I'm not fully sure about taking the Masters in Physical Education in UL, you'll have to check if your undergraduate course (i.e Sports Coaching and Performance) is recognised by the Teaching Council.

Having the sporting history behind you will benefit you a lot, of course. But it's about getting the initial qualification first and then the sporting experience will aid you in the job application process.

Hope this helps!

solerina

The recreation and leisure course in Tralee IT is an alternative to UL I think. Look into it anyway OP.

Elenorrigby

Have you considered Carlow IT? They offer a number of Bachelor of Arts Sport and Exercise courses. Again check with the teaching council to make sure that they are recognised.

DK man

solerina wrote: »

The recreation and leisure course in Tralee IT is an alternative to UL I think. Look into it anyway OP.

The Tralee course maybe an alternative route.

However of the studenta who enter the course in first year there are only @ 14 places in the pe stream (which is one of 5 specialisms) the top of the class have first pick.

Then after a 4 year degree you still have to apply to ul for the 2 year masters in education.

We are sending so many of our young to England every year because we don't have enough places in our system. This is a failure of the system - so many excellent and able young people are forced out of the country by the people in the dept of education - a disgrace

joeharte123

DK man wrote: »

The Tralee course maybe an alternative route.

However of the studenta who enter the course in first year there are only @ 14 places in the pe stream (which is one of 5 specialisms) the top of the class have first pick.

Then after a 4 year degree you still have to apply to ul for the 2 year masters in education.

We are sending so many of our young to England every year because we don't have enough places in our system. This is a failure of the system - so many excellent and able young people are forced out of the country by the people in the dept of education - a disgrace

Every year more and more graduates are being added to the queue. The issue of this massive overcrowded workforce isn't going to be solved anytime soon, unfortunately.

Unless the DES provide a job for every qualified teacher on the dole, temporary hours, jobs share etc. the issue won't be solved - demographically, this cannot happen.
As more and more people emigrate, even more are being pumped out with qualifications to teach.

DK man

joeharte123 wrote: »

Every year more and more graduates are being added to the queue. The issue of this massive overcrowded workforce isn't going to be solved anytime soon, unfortunately.

Unless the DES provide a job for every qualified teacher on the dole, temporary hours, jobs share etc. the issue won't be solved - demographically, this cannot happen.
As more and more people emigrate, even more are being pumped out with qualifications to teach.

Agree with much of what you say. A teaching qualification isn't great for work. It's pot luck - u might be lucky and get into a school shortly after graduation but you may also spend many years floating around picking up scraps of work.

However - many young people are willing to take their chances and many are forced out of their country to get qualified and this is not right. There are many sports courses that cover all the key elements of sports / fitness etc but they aren't recognised by the teaching council and this is an issue too

DK man

I have just been talking to the director of the pe course in ul ( finding out for a friend - but will share here)

They have 15 places per year for their masters programme. Tralee is currently the only course in the country that fulfils all the criteria. Other courses will be considered but the applicant will have a list of decencies which need to be made up in a year of taking electives / this is offered in ul. These deficiencies are usually in things like gymnastics / outdoor pursuits / games etc. You need 90 ets credits in these. Even the sport science students from ul need to undertake these extras. This will mean that you will be studying for 3 years after your degree. The offer of a place is conditional on you doing this pre entry top up year.

From what I gathered the course is mainly made up of Tralee graduates and a small number of other colleges / 1 wit / 2 Sligo / 1 USA student. Not sure if this was over the 2 years / classes or 1.

So overall the Tralee course would be the best route if you are very serious about pe. However of all the students who enter Tralee / 50-60 I think - only the top 25% will get places in the pe stream. And of these 15 - not all will get one of the 15 ul places - as mentioned above small number of other student will be admitted.

Now after 1st year not all those who want to be pe teachers at the outset will continue with this path after they are exposed to the other options and maybe some of the 15 who are in the pe stream may decide after 4 years that they don't want to be pe teachers....

Not an easy one for a young person. Imo - I think the ucas option is probably the best alternative route for Irish students. The ucas system has a larger number of pe courses. They value your sporting achievements and other qualities.

Best of luck in 6th year and hope you get a course that you want

leavincert111

thanks very much that was very helpful it looks like it Tralee course is best for me to get the best chance of getting onto the masters in ul its very frustrating that young people with more sporting qualities have a sort of disadvantage to those who are educationally more successful. I wish in future years that a persons sporting abilities play a much bigger part in their chance of getting into pe teaching. As pe is about sports and fitness rather than how good you do in exams but welcome to the irish school system thanks for everyones help

castaway_lady

Be aware that with the Tralee route it doesnt give you an exam based second subject to teach like the rest of the pe degrees, so leaves you shorter on options for replying to job ads and subbing.

There is also the option a plc course which allows you to apply for UCC Sport Studies, which is a PE degree. I think they only have 2 or 3 places and you'd have to get 8 distinctions to have any chance at all but worth looking into too. Tralee is the best back up option because you'd also get other qualifications for the fitness industry to work with in the meantime while you wait 10 years to get a pe job.

mirrorwall14

Definitely be very aware that having just one subject means you will find it exceptionally difficult to get a job in teaching. There are very very few teachers with single subjects hired in schools

Corkgirl18

I know someone who did a one year coaching course in Colaiste Stiofán Naofa ( a PLC) in Cork and this got him into the 4 year P.E. teaching course in UCC.

May be worth your while to check if this link still exists.

katydid

Corkgirl18 wrote: »

I know someone who did a one year coaching course in Colaiste Stiofán Naofa ( a PLC) in Cork and this got him into the 4 year P.E. teaching course in UCC.

May be worth your while to check if this link still exists.

There are only limited places from this course, so no guarantee you would get in. You have to get all distinctions, and then hope to be one of the lucky ones. I know someone who did the same course, but missed out on a place in UCC because there were too many people going for the few places.

Not saying it's not a good idea, just that people should be aware that a PLC course won't guarantee you a place...

DK man

I was talking to admissions in ucc and also the coordinator of the pe course and there are between 9-10 fetac / Plc places. They also have mature places and hear / dare. Which means that just over half go to cao!!!

This is quite staggering to offer so many places to Plc students- great but it goes against a well trodden trend among the universities. I don't quite understand why they have this policy but it is good for up to 10 students. Universities often manipulate to make sure that the points remain very high and this may the reason. This year the points cut off was 500 which is higher than limerick but they would not be 500 if they didn't offer fetac students places.

I don't agree with above poster who says that t would be almost impossible to get a job with only one subject. The last 3 pe teachers in my school went to England and only had pe. No doubt the more subjects the better.

katydid

DK man wrote: »

I don't agree with above poster who says that t would be almost impossible to get a job with only one subject. The last 3 pe teachers in my school went to England and only had pe. No doubt the more subjects the better.

That's England. I presume he was talking about Ireland.

DK man

Ireland or England with one subject is really the same. My point was that it is possible to get a pe job with just pe in your degree.... And this is why I gave mentioned 3 people who I know to back this up