I worked in FE for over a decade. I did the PGCE in Post Compulsary Education and Training. I can't comment on the DTTLS as I have no experience of it. However:
Please can you tell me your experiences of working in this sector?
Overall I enjoyed it, but be prepared to have to write your own Schemes of Work and do the vast majority of assessment. There are few external exams in this sector so you end up spending a lot of time doing what my boss referred to as 'Eternal verification'.
I currently only work 18 hours a week - could this fit in with the teaching?
In my experience, FE is the best when it comes to part time teaching. In my department of 17, only 5 were on full time contracts. The rest of us were fractional. Full time jobs are rare as hen's teeth, but being flexible with your hours on your other job will make life easier, especially when it comes to timetabling.
What is it like teaching teenagers on the verge of adulthood?
It depends on where you are working. I worked in an extremely deprived area of the country so there were issues of gangs, poverty, forced marriages and low expectations to contend with as well as the usual adolescent tantrums. The biggest problem I felt was I was teaching (mostly boys) with mens bodies and children's emotional responses. This can be a highly combustible mix, especially when added to the social and cultural issues they faced. They all recognised the need for 'respect' but few grasped the concept of responsibility that accompanies it i.e. they felt they deserved respect because they were adults at college, but they routinely did not act like adults and gave little in return.
If you work in a college you have to be aware that many of the students you recruit may have been refused a place in their school 6th form. This can be because the school does not offer the course they want, the school syphons off the academically brightest, the school may not want them back because of behavioural issues or they may have failed the conventional academic route (often because of behavioural issues). Do not kid yourself that they are at college because they want to be there. The benefits system means many are forced back into education becuse their parents lose their bemnefits for post 16 children or they cannot draw JSA. For many, this is just a hoop they have to jump through to get money. Don't expect classes full of bright eyed eager students.
However, one of the great joys of FE is giving these precise students a second chance. They come to you with their history effectively wiped claean and many do make the effort. Even the ones that appear the most hopeless on paper can have a bright future in front of them, given a bit of encouragement (I briefly taught a young lad who now performs under the name Dizzy Rascal, and a right little horror he was too, but with a great sense of humour). You can have an adult conversation with them, they make you laugh and some of them end up being life long friends.
What are the biggest challenges to you?
See above. It's not a good idea to try teaching at this level if you are at all precious about being the 'expert'. You will always encounter students with questions you can't answer and ones who are much, much brighter than you. If you can say "I don't know, but let's find out together" without losing your self esteem or feeling belittled then you are half way there. Believe it or not, I've known a lot of teachers who can't do that simple thing.
Will I enjoy it?
That one is the hardest to predict. I strongly recommend you work shadow someone for a few weeks to get a sense of how it all works. I've mentored a fair few student teachers in my time and I never know when I meet them whether or not they will cope, but after a few weeks I can usually tell if they will survive.
Finally, can I recomment the TES for the view from the chalkface.