What degree did you obtain from university to get into teaching?

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I currently have a nursing degree however, would like to become a teacher. I am wondering whether I would be able to use my degree or if I would have to restart a new one completely. What degrees did you all obtain?

Rules change over time so best to check latest guidance. I graduated in 1997 and did my primary PGCE in 2000-2001. The stipulation then was that the degree had to be in subjects related to the primary curriculum.

I know nurses that have done a pgce to become a teacher.
Strangely, both went back to nursing so try and keep your registration .

I graduated in Physics and did a secondary PGCE.

I do know someone who had done nursing and practised for a few years before doing a post 16 PGCE in Health and Social Care. You can do 14-19 these days,again in H&S care which would also qualify you to teach KS4.

I would suggest you look at your local area and investigate the jobs that might be available e.g. is there an FE/6th form college offering health courses and/or schools who do it at KS4/5.

Not sure about primary-maybe ask a local uni or check on their website.

Maths undergrad degree then PGCE.

I also know plenty of nurses who did a PGCE and have since gone back to nursing!

What subjects did people with a nursing degree go on to specialise in? I was thinking of teaching science/biology as that is quite closely related to my degree in some ways

My degree is Geography. I then did a pgce.
I did start off teaching Geography and then some travel and tourism and now I teach Health and social care!

Degree in chemistry, then PGCE.

You'd need to do a PGCE, but even then I know our science department wouldn't take you on unless we were beyond desperate. We've found over the years (and through bitter experience) that the best teachers tend to have a degree in physics (or closely related, like astrophysics), biology (again, really closely related ones like zoology are fine), chemistry or biochemistry.

We now ignore applicants who have degrees in psychology, geology, sports science etc., even though they've all got PGCEs, and have often done an extra year to top up on one of their sciences. I'm pretty certain we'd ignore someone with a nursing degree. I'm sure there are exceptions, but at our school, they've always ended up leaving teaching after 2-4 years, mainly citing workload as the issue.

You need to check with whichever universities you'd do your PGCE. However, be warned, the universities may be happy to take you on, but then you may find that once you're trained, schools aren't so keen, and you struggle to get a job.

My degree was in International Relations and tbh had nothing to do with the primary curriculum but I was accepted to the three unis I applied to for my PGCE. I would imagine you would be snapped up for primary because being a nurse, your maths and science knowledge would be to a high standard. I imagine it would be more difficult getting accepted to PGCE/get a job doing secondary as your knowledge may not be specialised enough.

I did a law degree then did primary PGCE and teach year 2

I found that the only annoying thing was having to constantly explain in interviews for jobs and PGCE how the skills in law degree applied to teaching. I would say with nursing I know Durham wouldn’t accept a boy who had done a nursing degree on the PGCE so had to do the 3 year course

I did Electronic Engineering and then (after a long time) a science PGCE. I find Biology quite hard in terms of subject knowledge because I didn't do A-level. Which A-levels did you do?

Computing Degree and then did a part-time Business Masters whilst working and then after a long time switched careers by completing PGCE

Linguistics, then a PGCE. I teach yr6, the grammar is useful!

I have a biomedical sciences degree. Different universities will accept different degrees, so if you're not fussy about where you study nursing should be fine as long as you have GCSE maths, English & science.

The above poster asking about A levels is bang on; it depends what you did as to which unis will let you into the PGCE. Some schools will also want to know, but most schools can't afford to be fussy now. Back when I qualified I know you couldn't do a biology PGCE without a chemistry A level but I'm sure that has changed now.

4 year B.Ed.

4 year BEd

I would say that @astuz school must be lucky to be able to be so picky about their science teachers!!

I have a degree in psychology (with open units in physiology) and did a biology pgce. I now teach science, I have in the past taught psychology and would love to get back to it. I haven't felt it to be an issue for recruitment, although I would expect private schools to want a 'straight' science. It's worth contacting a few unis to see if they would accept you. If you trained as science but were willing to teach health and social care I think you could be very in demand!

3 year B.Eng in civil enginerring, an M.Sc in environmental science. Intended to become a secondary geography teacher, but things didn't work out like that. I did GTP for primary 12 years after I left university.

BA in Dance and Film. Primary PGCE with Music.

BA in Music, worked in industry for 4 years then PGCE secondary Music with Maths 2nd subject. Taught secondary Music for 26 years; in last 2 I have taught KS2 Music as well. I have also taught Business GNVQ and some IT many years ago.