Teacher training - where do I start?

[MmeLindt]

I have recently been thinking about going back to Uni/College to train as a teacher. I have taught English as a foreign language for several years, mainly working with children. I have considered teaching Modern Languages as I already speak fluent German.

I am 36yo, left school at 17yo with 2 Highers and 6 O'levels (sadly not maths, just arithmetic). Since leaving school I did an apprenticeship in Germany, worked for some years in sales, then taught English before moving to Switzerland. I am confident that in a year or so that I will be fluent in French.

Does anyone have any ideas how I would start ? I thought about a degree in German.

Ideally I would do some kind of a course from home (as we are currently living in Switzerland). Does any college offer courses like that?

Hi. You could try the Open University - www.open.ac.uk/education-and-languages/courses_and_qualifications/initial_teacher_training.php. I started off my university studies with them when I was pregnant, studying from home and I can recommend their courses. They also do courses in German www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/languages/german/courses/index.htm?sc=GERM&at=U&l=2&o=P.

That is interesting, Fragilemum. Do you need to have any particular qualifications?

Did you do one of their starter courses first?

OU is fab, I did a year there before 'bricks and mortar' Uni.

You need to tEACH AT SDECONDARY A DEGREE THEN A pgce; THE SUUAL ROUTE IS 4 YERAS AT uNI BUT WITH SHORTAGE SUBJECTS SUCH AS LANGUAGES TEHRE ARE ALTERNATIVE

sORRY anbout caps- not shouting, just BF

No quals neweded for OU

You wil eventually need your GCSE Maths if you want to complete your PGCE.

That sounds good, Peachy.

I could do German no problem and perhaps beginners French (as I understood the website, that is possible).

Can you go at your own speed? I can imagine that to begin with I could do the German stuff reasonably easily but my French is not yet that great. Could I concentrate on the German for the first year then do the French?

Jacqueline
Hmm, but I could do that at some point I suppose.

I am hopeless at maths though. I would rather do 12 German exams than 1 maths exam.

GCSE maths,English to teach in England (and Welsh if you want to teach ehre..... which is why i'm appplying over the border next year as I can't speak it at all LOL (I was schooled in England and this is a non Welsh speaking area). You can do an equivalent thogh- ad I applied within 3 years my Access Maths / English would have counted; I will now have to do a test for proficiency as it's older than that.

OU is excellenta syour eally can progress at your own pace and the material is great also. Are there any groups near you? I know they have them scattered across Europe.

I don't know if I will ever be teaching in UK, tbh. At the moment we are in CH, we might be here for about 3 to 5 years then either Germany or USA.

If I had a proper teaching qualification I could apply for jobs either at local schools wherever we happen to be or international schools. I thought that language teachers are sought after pretty much everywhere.

I am cursing my school career advisor for telling me to drop maths and take arithmetic instead.

mmelindt, I looked into doing OU a few years back, read through the brochures and planned it all then realised the cost is sometimes 3 times the cost for UK students if you want to study in Europe. It was quite expensive, or it would have been by the time I'd got through enough modules.

It is expensive but the I just graduated with £16k debt......HE is always expensive sadly!