Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Career change : how to get into teaching? (without going back to school)
Having spent the past ten+ years facing a computer screen I have decided to dedicate the rest of my working life to people. Nice thought, but how do I get about it?
I'm in my late forties, have changed directions a few times, needless to say that I have more skills than qualifications and that I do not have a proven experience of working in my new chosen field. As a qualification I have what I think is an equivalent to a foreign BSc, but I couldn't even tell if this counts as a degree. I have taught skills to people along the way through my different jobs, but this doesn't exactly make it to my CV. Finally, I only want a part-time occupation once I'm in, which I guess rules out a lot of options. And, no, I am not a parent, forget about mum jobs. The only positive is that I have been doing some voluntary work with kids since earlier this year.
I thought of becoming a teaching assistant, someone else said I could become a mentor, either way I know I'd be good at it (I would!) but... this is such a maze! I don't know the education system over here, but can't face going back to school for a year or more to study. Can I start somewhere and get training along the way?
Does anyone here know about the teaching world and could give me some advice?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Becky Barber on
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If you are interested in being a Teacher's assistant in a primary school, by far the best place to start is by contacting local primary schools and seeing if they have any vacancies or if they would be willing for you to come in and volunteer for a bit. Or even if you could just chat to them on the phone about it. My husband has just started as a TA in a local primary school where he initially volunteered one day week.If you are able to build a relationship with a particular school, then they can help to guide you on the whole question of qualifications.
In general, it's always good to make personal contact.
Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by Isabelle on
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Well I was good at maths... that's a long time ago! No idea what they teach nowadays, though I should hope that the basics have not changed.
I know what you mean about teaching, I had a brilliantly knowledgeable history teacher at school, only she was useless at teaching anything, she was so confusing when expressing herself.
I have privately taught a bit of art and some French – the French didn't appeal to me though.
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Permalink Reply by Martina Dervis on
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What exactly is your qualification? It should be possible to find out what the equivalance in the UK is. If it's a European qualification I might be able to help you or at least point you in the right direction. I had similar issues because I am changing career, and I have a foreign degree from 1988!
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Permalink Reply by L F T Snowflake on
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Again, I have seen collegues with overseas quals try to get through that way and again, my experience tells me it just don't work. The best way is via a UK degree and a PGCE.
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I have a DEUG in Architecture. According to Wikipedia: ""the "Diplôme d'études universitaires générales (DEUG)" is French for General Academic Studies Degree. It was a French national degree, delivered by universities one year before the Bachelor's degree.""
So far, I have been calling it a BSc equivalent, but I'm not sure this is right...
And I assume that I'm not infringing the law by calling my earlier 'Baccalauréat' an A-level equivalent?
And what do I answer for: "Do you have any GCSE grades?"... They want to know if I got any qualifications when I was a teenager?!? The correct answer would be 'no', but then I don't make it to the next recruitment step.
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Am about to rush off but will reply properly later. Very briefly: a Licence is generally seen as an ordinary degree (i.e. one without honours), and although opinions on this seem to vary, this makes it clear that a DEUG (Bac+2) is not a degree. As for GCSE: of course you have GCSE equivalent, through the very fact that you have a Bac (i.e. A level equivalent). It's difficult to explain this to people here but you have to persist! I had the same problem because I have a German Abitur (and no qualifications before that because you don't get any if you go to a German Gymnasium; very similar to a lycée), followed by a French Licence.
A DEUG does not have a real equivalent here; the closest would be certain Certificates of Higher Education or Diplomas.
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Permalink Reply by David Barry on
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I ran into trouble a few years ago, when I was told that for something I wanted to do, that despite having two degrees and a post grad diploma, that I had to have a GCSE in English and Maths. The problem is that I did "O"- levels...... ie GCE and they did not know what that meant, so my O level GCEs in English Language, English Literature, Mathematics and Additional Mathematics did, not as far as they were concerned, count. I gave up in the end.
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Haha, that sounds familiar! When I applied to do a second undergraduate degree (in biology), one university told me that although I did meet all their A level requirements, I did not meet their GCSE requirements in maths! This was simply because in Germany there is no such thing as exams at this age if you are in a grammar school. The fact that by then I had done a maths refresher course (studying part-time at Birkbeck) did not impress them. Nor the fact that I had done maths until the age of 18 (we had to), so I effectively had an equivalent of an AS level! Fortunately not all the universities reacted like this... I've presented exactly the same qualifications to a number of universities, and the reaction ranged from 'you do not meet our entry requirement for undergraduate study full stop' to others that encouraged me to apply for postgraduate study (not in a pure science, though).
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Same in France. Unless you went for specialised technical studies rather than staying on the main track, the first qualification you could possibly receive was the Baccalauréat (A-levels or so at age 18 or so).
So I could never take seriously these GCSE level requirements over here, because they sound like something so basic that you do so soon after leaving nursery school (purposely exaggerating). And, at my old age, to be asked if I have any... !
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The GCSE question drove me mad too! There I was actually teaching, having successfully had a career in the real world, but was told that I could not progress without the GCSE's. Then of course was the blind alley of the 'equivalence test', which I took. Though feted as the way round the GCSE requirement, most teacher training colleges sniff at them.
I went to a specialist TT college in Cambridge and was rejected because I didn't have a real gcse, even though the course was 50% under subscribed! I keep saying this, because I have been down all the blind alleys, the BEST way to become a teacher is to do your GCSE's, take your degree and then do your PGCE.
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Permalink Reply by Dick Harris on
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I believe that UK NARIC can tell you what your foreign qualification is equivalent to. See: http://www.ecctis.co.uk/naric/default.aspx
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They do but unfortunately not for free. There are other ways of finding out but they take a bit of searching.
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