Professional Graduate Certificate in Education (Professional Diploma in Teaching – Further Education and Skills) - Full-time
About This Course
Empowering educators in the Lifelong Learning Sector for a brighter future. The course provides our trainee teachers with the knowledge, resilience and passion to succeed as teachers in the Further Education and Skills sector. We aim for our trainees to be armed with the skills they need to transform the lives of their learners. Our course is vital to the prosperity of the local area, as we are creating our own base of local teachers with local knowledge who understand their local community and want to make a difference.
Working in the Further Education and Skills Sector it is vital that all teachers and trainers consistently reflect on their practice in order to meet the dynamic needs of this ever-evolving sector and meet the requirement of the ETF, Ofsted and Office for Students. Our trainees will be working in diverse environments but meeting the individual requirements of all learners, allowing them to achieve.
Trainees will explore and critique current issues as well as acquire technical competence in approaches to the four central concepts of pedagogy, andragogy, curriculum and assessment. They will explore and critique the ETF professional standards and the application within their current practice. This course will also focus on the Department of Education, ITT Core Content Framework which consists of five core areas behaviour management, pedagogy, curriculum, assessment and professional behaviours.
We work closely in collaboration with our stakeholders, which include local employers, mentors and our trainees to develop and grow the programme to meet their needs. We also work with our fellow TEC Partnership partners.
Applicants will require a Bachelor’s degree (Level 6), a level 3 qualification in subject specialist area (where the subject area is not related to degree) and GCSE English and Maths at Grade 4 (or equivalent).
An enhanced DBS is required before the trainee can be left unsupervised with learners and no later than November except in exceptional circumstances, as well as a satisfactory reference.
Accreditation of prior learning
TEC Partnership encourages student transfers from other institutions. Applicants may be admitted with credit for prior certificated learning (APcL) or work/life experience or other uncertificated learning (APeL). Please refer to the HE21 Student Transfer and the Accreditation of Prior Learning.
- Learners and Learning
- Teachers and Teaching
- Professional Practice
- Evidence Informed Practice
- Teaching my Subject
- Effective Digital and Online Pedagogies
Assessments will be carried out in a variety of ways, with a mixture of presentations, written assignments, observations and research papers, with an emphasis on building confidence in presenting skills and on reflective practice.
Delivery will occur twice a week during term time, and with blended delivery, totalling 12 hours per week for 30 weeks. These sessions will blend approaches to delivery of theory and practice using a co-creation model of delivery. The lived experience of the trainees will be used as examples to link practice and theory developing the trainee’s reflective skills alongside their teaching skills. As modules develop, the use of trainee led learning will increase as trainees begin to co-create their own professional skills.
Each trainee will be provided a mentor from their own organisation who, following training, will support the trainee in their practice. The mentor will commit to spending 30 minutes bi-weekly with the trainee.
Each trainee will be provided with access to pastoral support on the programme. The trainees will be observed in their own teaching practice ten times over the year, by a tutor from TEC Partnership, each lasting a minimum of 45 minutes plus preparation and feedback time of not less than one hour (minimum of 1 hour 45 minutes in total). Trainees will be given supportive and developmental feedback, linking to real world contexts. A majority of the trainee teacher’s classroom hours must be with ten or more learners. No hours will count where there are fewer than five learners.
Assessment will be carried out in a variety of ways, with an emphasis on building confidence in presenting skills and on reflective practice.
Each trainee will be provided a mentor from their own organisation who, following training, will support the trainee in their practice. The mentor will commit to spending 30 minutes bi weekly with the trainee.
Each trainee will be provided with access to pastoral support on the programme.
Leaners will be able to teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector or gain employment with educational establishments in a variety of roles. There is also an opportunity for them to study at masters level.
