Reference for PGCE place

[weakestlink]

Has anyone applied for a PGCE place and can advise me on who to use as my primary referee?

It says that they refer an academic reference if you graduated within the last 5 years - I graduated in 2007 so I should really use my tutor but he has ignored my emails thus far (perhaps not back yet / emails got lost?) and I need to apply in October!

Also, it's been 4 years since I graduated - will my tutor even agree to write a reference for me? I think it's quite important that he goes into detail about my suitability for teaching, strenghts, qualities etc. In my email I have tried to fill him in on the last 4 years but I don't want to patronsie him!

I was planning on using my employer for my second reference but could use them as primary instead but again I'm not sure what they'd write that would be relevant to teaching! I don't work with children but I have trained a few new recruits in my time!

I have just started to volunteer at my son's primary school but I feel it's early days to be asking them to be primary referee really

If anyone else has been through this please get in touch!!!!!!!

I've written lots of references for people who've done PGCEs. If your tutor doesn't get back to you, is there anyone else in your old department who knows you better or with whom you're still in touch? It doesn't have to be your tutor... anyone who can vouch for your academic record will be fine. Maybe try phoning the departmental secretary (if you had one) or administrator and asking whether there's anyone available who was there when you graduated and who'd be willing to talk to you about being a referee? Oh and don't worry about patronising the tutor... If I haven't heard from a former student for a while I always ask them to fill me in on what they've been doing!

Good luck with the application.

Totally I've only just seen this - thanks for your reply!

Still no reply from my personal tutor but I've emailed another one I knew reasonably well in the meantime. Going to up the ante and ring the secretary tomorrow as you suggest.

One thing - it says on the PGCE site that the reference needs to go into detail about my suitability for teaching etc etc. Is it realistic to expect someone from the university to do this?!

OK well I'm an OU student and have been advised to give the Head of my Regional Office as my referee and not my tutor.

So, might be worth ringing the uni and asking.