MFL Teacher

[cereza]

Hi
I am thinking of retraining to teach foreign languages, mainly Spanish, which is my native language, and French (I would have to do a refresher course for this to be fluent again)
Now, I am not sure how to go about this. Is there a high demand of languages in schools now? Should I focus on adult learning instead?
I have no teaching background, I am a translator, btw. So I suppose I would have to have a taste of a school classroom before deciding to do a PGCE. How easy is it to get a couple of weeks in a school to shadow a teacher?
Thanks

Given that govt funding for non-skills/work related adult learning is likely to be hit hard I would n't put your eggs in one basket. Having said that mfl courses are still very popular as people still travel and have second homes abroad. For teaching adults, if you have a degree or similar, you could probably get away with a City and Guilds 7303 qualification known as Preparing to teach in the Lifelong sector which is much a shorter course (40ish hours) although a pgce would be more flexible long term.

Thanks lizs, I didn't know about that City and Guilds qualification. I'll look into it.

A friend of mine is in a similar situation having worked for the foreign office for many years. She has now decided that she wants to make use of her language skills (she has amazing German) and wants to become a secondary school language teacher. As far as I am aware she just rang up some schools and asked if it would be ok to sit in on some lessons. She only did a day or two at a few different schools but it must be possible to do longer. I can find out more details from her and get back to you if this would help?

Julie

sitting in on lessons is a good way to find out if you really want to do it. There are fewer MFL jobs around these days in secondary schools. An option may be to train as a priary teacher with MFL specialism

Arewenearlythereyet2009, thank you, yes please, could you ask your friend about it? I definitely need to sit in on lessons.
duckyfuzz, thank you, i saw the OU does a primary plus MFL pgce, i shall look into it too.

Not a problem cereza!

I will have a word over the weekend and get back to you!

Hi cereza!
How was your weekend? I spoke to my friend over the weekend and she told me that she just found some schools in the local area that she liked the look of and then wrote to the head teachers of the schools and asked to sit in on some classes. Apparently it was all very easy, perhaps a little too easy, she wasn?t checked at all before starting?

Hi AWNTY2009! That sounds pretty painless, I hope I can do the same. My plan is to contact the 3 local schools in my area (first the one where my 5yo goes) and see what they say. Thanks a lot

You're welcome Good luck!