Would I ever be able to be a teacher and if so how?

[VivaLeBeaver]

I get confused about different routes, entry requirements, etc.

I'd prefer secondary school. In fact only secondary school.

I have a degree in criminology. I have an an advanced diploma in midwifery, ie: not quite a degree, just didn't do the dissertation part. Neither of which are curriculum subjects so this is where I don't know if they're ok.

I work as a sure start midwife teaching 16-18 year olds a specialist course which is equivalent to a gcse, but have no school experience. I also have a mentor/assessor qualification which was a post grad midwifery qualification so I can teach/mentor student midwives.

I like the sound of the gttp, due to earning while training.

Umm, don't know anything about secondary but strikes me you could teach psychology/ sociology/ child care studies and also be good at teaching PSHCE (although generally everybody ends up teaching that, whether they are good at it or not).

Also think if you wanted to you could teach science? Presumably you have science A Levels and your degrees and career have been in scientific fields.

GTP seems to be a complete lottery to me and clear as mud how you get into it in different areas. Perhaps get in touch with your local LEAs to see how they deal with it?

GTP is v competitive and the majority of places are reserved for shortage areas which are now maths, physics and chemistry. You also tend to need a good amount of school experience to be considered, it's an intense route, very much in at the deep end.

What subject are you considering teaching? Social science or health and social care lend themselves to your degrees.

I trained on gtp in 2006 and highly recommend it, it isn't easy though.

I was thinking of social sciences, psychology, sociology, etc. Wasn't sure if biology would be a possibility with my midwifery qualifications but I don't have any science a-levels so probably not. I did a business btec instead of a levels.

Where did you take your qualifications and do they have a Careers Advice service - you are often allowed to use this long after you have left. They would know (or be able to point you in the right direction) how to go about this

Also massively competitive, but have you considered teach first?

www.teachfirst.org.uk/TFHome/

I believe you'd be able to qualify to teach social sciences. And as I think you know you have a choice between GTTP or a 1 year full-time PGCE. Check with local universities what subjects they'll accept. I knew somebody who was accepted for English even though their degree was in History because it was deemed to have sufficient literacy content.

Your business studies Btec will be your sticking point, this is because unless you are looking at teaching business studies you have no qualifications beyond GCSE that are NC subjects.
Would you consider teaching FE instead ?
Otherwise I really think you'd be looking at getting relevant A levels, then degree ie starting all over again.
Whilst there are some routes that indicate flexibility in entrance requirements you'd be searching for a needle in a haystack.

You could go the PTLLS/DTLLS route and teach various subjects in FE colleges. With your background you would probably find loads more opportunities that way too.

Second the pttls/dtlls route

With your midwifery experience you could get a post teaching something like health and social care and get paid as a visiting lecturer while you train. At my FE college a VL gets around £21-24 per hour

So how does being a visiting lecturer work? It sounds like not much job security and not many hours to me?

I've googled for the ptlls course and there seem to be quite a few Places doing distance learning. Are they generally ok? Would I get a job with having done a distance learning course?

I hadn't even thought about FE prior to this so this is all very helpful, thanks. Is it true that job security and pay isn't as good as in ordinary secondary schools?

Deep down I'd love to be a history teacher but I know it's not going to happen. I can't afford to go to uni for three years for a third time!

Having done the PTLLS course I would recommend doing it as a taught course if you can. It gets awarded at a Level 3 or Level 4 depending on how well you do I think and I know our teacher didn't accept any work that wasn't of Level 4 standard. Also, part of the course was a 20 minute micro-teach and 3 of us have got bits of work based on a combination of this and the teacher having spent 30 hours with us and therefore knowing what our skill levels are like and being able to give us good references.

As far as work goes all the FE colleges around me seem to do full-time contracts, part-time contracts or variable hours ones. We were told that it is easiest to get variable hours work at first as it gives the college a chance to see what you are like.

Colleges here don't pay as well as the state schools but with a DTLLS/Cert Ed friends have got jobs in the private sector that pay better than the state schools.

You can work in FE as a teacher full-time or part-time without a PGCE.

You can get a job (advertised in TES or contact FE collages in your area), when you start your timetable will be cut to make way for you to study one day a week on the PGCE (FE), this takes one year.

If you have a choice of jobs, choose one that delivers the PGCE in-house as it makes poping into tutorials etc very easy.

On completion of PGCE (FE) you will not be able to easily convert to secondary (if you do a secondary PGCE you can teach easily in FE - not so the other way round).

Your timetable will then revert to normal.
Fees for FE PGCE are often met by the employer - if not they will be able to deduct monthly amounts from your salary.

Full-time FE lecture post your looking at 23-29k.

You get all holidays off, with the exception of five traning days which usually fall at the start of school holidays.

You can be an hourly paid lecturer, again you do not need any more qualifications than you have however some will require you to begin PGCE study.
BUT it is much much harder to be hourly paid - the amount of prep for a lecturer just starting out is considerable, whilst hourly rates are around £25-30 you will only be paid for lectured hours, not prep time.
A typical three hour lecture often took me four hours to prepare......

Not to put a damper on things but in our area this is a terrible time to be going into FE teaching, due to the cuts. There are no full-time permanent jobs in FE where I live and those on temp contracts are getting hours cut, contracts not renewed. FWIW, its also really hard getting a job as a history teacher too. You might be better to stick with what you have got.

RosemaryandThyme "Your business studies Btec will be your sticking point, this is because unless you are looking at teaching business studies you have no qualifications beyond GCSE that are NC subjects."

I have no qualifications past GCSE which are NC subjects.....I have been teaching for 8 years.

What route would you recommed for OP cricket ?

at this moment in time, I would also advise to steer clear from FE exclusively as missh stated, there are lots and lots of cuts happening.

I would highly recommend that you spend some time in different schools (good/bad/horrible!) before you decide as I have seen a number of trainees who had their rose tinted specs on and the reality hit them like a slap in the face.

As your degree is not in a subject studied within the KS3/4 curriculum I would suggest that following the experiences I suggest that you go through the PGCE route. However, there is also the chance for subject enhancement course which you can use for your teaching subject here is a link for the subjects that Keele offer as a post graduate course (and you are not required to have your initial degree within the subject area

SCITT - on the job teacher training.