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Original poster

does anyone have a law degree and is now a teacher?

23 replies

bosscat · 27/07/2005 17:03

I ask because I have been looking into doing the PGCE and its like bashing my head against a brick wall. Despite 3 years of University, 1 year of law school, 2 years of training and 6 years PQE I am apparently not qualified to teach anything!! Does anyone have any experience of someone doing law and then teaching?

OP posts:

CountessDracula · 27/07/2005 17:05

You could teach at the College of law

Hulababy · 27/07/2005 17:11

What about teaching Law - done from GCSE level in many state comprehensives and also in FE colleges.

What were your A levels at school?

Hulababy · 27/07/2005 17:15

Or something like Citizenship. Like on the PGCSE course \loink{http://www2.shu.ac.uk/prospectus/op_pglookup1.cfm?id_num=EDU023&status=TN\here}. And once you have your PGCE you can branch out into other subjects anyway.

What did you specialise in? May get something from that too.

Hulababy · 27/07/2005 17:15

Sorry - here .

Original poster

bosscat · 27/07/2005 17:34

I did Politics, Sociology and English Lit A'Levels. I called the teaching helpline this afternoon and they told me I could do citizenship but when I looked up what exactly that was it said it is taught alongside other sujects like history in a lot of schools. So would I actually be able to get a job teaching this do you think? Where could I find that out, do they have a teaching magazine or paper that advertises jobs so I could check out how many citizenship posts go up?

OP posts:

CarolinaMoon · 27/07/2005 17:37

What age group do you want to teach?

Hulababy · 27/07/2005 17:37

Have a look at the Times Education Supplement. It comes out every Friday and is very widely available. There may not be many job vacancies being advertised right now though, as the schools are on holiday - so unlikely to be sending out application forms or holding interviews. There may be one or two I guess. Most popular time for advertising vacancies (and when you get loads of ads) is around Easter time.

TES is also online at www.tes.co.uk

Hulababy · 27/07/2005 17:39

Policitcs and Sociolology are all subjects taught at schools and collegese also. And prison education too - that's what I do now, after leaving teaching in schools at easter.

And English is often a sought after subject.

Hulababy · 27/07/2005 17:42

Hope these help:

TES online

Teacher Training Agency website

Teachernet - a Government site

Ameriscot2005 · 27/07/2005 17:50

I don't have a law degree, but I did a PGCE from an engineering degree. In order to meet the course requirements, I had to go through the individual courses I took at Uni, 10+ years previously (ie 6 - 12 courses a year for four years), and match them up to the GCSE syllabus for science. I'm qualified to teach biology, even though I dropped it in Year 9, and am qualified to teach physics and chemistry A-level, even though I only have Highers in these subjects. I did a fair bit of chemistry in my degree, but not much physics, yet physics is my main qualification (I nominated this to make myself more marketable and no one complained!).

Do you have a gut instinct about what you would like to teach? For this subject, see what matches you can engineer between your law degree and the KS3/KS4 syllabus.

At the end of the day, it's up to the individual university to accept you on their course. It may be worth contacting them ahead of filling in the official forms to see what your chances are.

Original poster

bosscat · 27/07/2005 18:02

Hulababy, I would love to teach politics or sociology or even english at a FE college but when I look at the requirements on the TTR site it says for secondary you need a degree in that subject. Do you think thats right for all of these sujects?

OP posts:

Original poster

bosscat · 27/07/2005 18:03

Ooh, teaching law in prison would be amazing! How on earth would I find out about that? Where do these places advertise their jobs I wonder? Where did you find yours?

OP posts:

Hulababy · 27/07/2005 18:06

Hmm..not sure. It is a long time ago since I qualified now.

I think you'd be better telephoning some unis up and asking them about your best options TBH.

List everything you have studied and your experience, and see how it all fits in.

Did you become a solicitor? If so, did you do things like Business related courses? Or accounts? Things like that.

Hulababy · 27/07/2005 18:09

I don't teach law in a prison - sorry, I obviously muddled that. I was teaching Business and Budgeting. This did involve some law, but only business stuff.

I now do advising on education to inmates, but need my QTS and teaching qualificatiosn for it.

Prison Ed jobs are advertised in TES and local press, as with other jobs. Most prison education is run by colleges. My prison ed is run by City College Manchester. I saw a job for a tutot, applied and got the job. Then moved onto this new job too.

But, as with all colleges now, you still need a teaching qualification - either a PGCE or a cert ed.

Original poster

bosscat · 27/07/2005 18:13

yeah I am 6 years qualified. I did business and accounts. I can't believe how difficult it seems just to get on a course when they offer bursaries and money to encourage you to do it in the first place, so they obviously need teachers. I have a friend who qualified years and years ago, she doesn't even have a degree, she did an HND in hotel management!! and she's now teaching at secondary school. she taught in state and now private. How is hotel management any better suited to anything than law? I'm baffled.

OP posts:

Ameriscot2005 · 27/07/2005 20:13

You may be able to find a "conversion course", which is a 2 year course to teach a subject that you do not have a degree in.

Hulababy · 27/07/2005 20:18

Which is kind of what I did.

I did half a degree which I hated. So, half way through, I then tranferred on to a two year (shortened) BEd Honours degree, with QTS. This meant that I didn't need a PGCE on top.

My A levels were Economics and Computing. And my part-degree was Computing and Business Analysis. I transferred onto a BEd in Business Education. I then went on to teach secondary ICT and some Business Studies. In my first years I also had to teach some key stage 3 Maths too.

Hulababy · 27/07/2005 20:20

bosscat - are you wanting to do your teaching qualification:

(a) secondary, primary or FE/HE
(b) FT or PT study
(c) at a uni/college or through distance learning (if college, any location best?)
(d) preferred subjects

Ameriscot2005 · 27/07/2005 20:21

Simplistically, I understand that the first year of a conversion course is getting up to speed with the degree material of the subject you want to teach, and the second year is a regular PGCE.

Hulababy · 27/07/2005 20:27

A course like this may be a better option???

Hulababy · 27/07/2005 20:27

That is different to what I did then Ameriscot.

Hulababy · 27/07/2005 20:30

This is the type of course I did. Infact this is the course I did, with a new name, even same uni

Hulababy · 27/07/2005 20:34

\klink{http://www.mmu.ac.uk/courses/course_detail.php?courses_id=3134\Look here} too for an idea of a course that may be suitable. Might give you an idea of what is available. For expmple, thi one looks like you could do Citizenship on its own.

Also you don't have to have the exact degree in one subject area only. Instead you have to be able to:

"Applicants should show how their degree provides an appropriate and relevant foundation for work as a teacher in the age phase and subject they are to teach. In addition, other aspects of previous education are taken into account."

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