Why give up a good career to become a teacher; especially when you have three children, wife and a mortgage to support?

For me I had been working 22 years in the Water industry moving from Engineering Design, Operational Management, Investment Planning and finally consultancy. A varied and interesting career so far, however I was sitting in front of yet another spreadsheet, just been to a meeting where I felt I had heard it all before. Time to move on and to do something different, interesting, challenging and of real value; teaching came to mind. It then took me four years to make the leap from the comfort of my existing lifestyle to join the PGCE at the UEA.

Before I joined the PGCE I went to a seminar about how to get into teaching; GTP, SCITT and PGCE were all mentioned as potential routes. I then spent 10 days at a primary school, once I decided it was time to make the move, to see if I was suited to the teaching environment before I applied to the PGCE at the UEA.

I decided to do a PGCE instead of a GTP or SCITT because I felt I needed to increase my limited knowledge about; behaviour management, special educational needs, the learning environment and a whole host of other areas of educational expertise so underpinning any practical teaching methods. The PGCE offered the balance between academic and practical training: and to be frank without the initial theoretical knowledge the teaching practice would have been horrendous.

I enjoyed every minute of the course and teaching practice placements, however if you want an easy life or you think teaching is an easy or easier option do not join this course. In the first two weeks I thought what have I done I will never be able to do this, fortunately there was another 179 students feeling the same. The assignments and activities set are all designed to provide the foundation for a newly qualified teacher to build on. It is made quite clear that it is impossible to teach everything that is needed in an intense 38 weeks. Funnily enough these guys have sussed out what is needed and are continually improving the course based on feedback from the students and schools.

I was really impressed with the PGCE and feel confident in my new career as a year 1 teacher. I have no regrets and I feel revitalised!

Online Prospectus

Our PGCE Teacher Training Prospectus for September 2012 entry will provide you with further detailed information about all of our course options and programmes of study (online version available shortly).

Please contact us if you wish to request a hard copy version either through email: pgceinfo@uea.ac.uk or telephone: (+44) (0)1603 592855.