The journey to becoming a teacher isn’t as complicated as you might think. The process
is split into three phases – depending on where you are in the process, you’ve got
various different options to consider. The three phases are ‘prepare’, ‘apply’
and ‘post application’.
The first thing you need to do is register. It’s really quick and easy to do and when you register you get access to lots of extra
support. So, for example, you might have access to the Premier Plus programme that helps you
into our shortage subjects, you could get access to our school experience programme
to help you to explore teaching for yourself. And there’ll be other things, like access
to events that are going on locally to help you find out what teacher training is available
in your area. It’s really important to go into schools
to see if you like the job, see what it’s really like these days. To get school experience,
our school experience programme can help you into schools and get you up to 10 days in
a school. If you can’t get on the school experience programme, then approaching schools
yourself is a good idea. One other key thing to do is to consider what
your local training options are. So, start looking on the UCAS website where you can
search for different training providers to see what’s available locally and to consider
whether your qualifications match what they’re looking for.
You might find that doing a subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) course would be a good idea to
help boost your subject knowledge. If you think your subject knowledge might be a little
bit short in some areas, talk to the training provider, have an open conversation with them
about it. They’ll tell you whether they think you need to do an SKE course or not.
One thing you can do just to get yourself ahead in the process is to – as well as
registering with us for extra support – but also to register with UCAS. So that if you
do find you’ve got time to just start filling in bits of the application form well before
you’re ready to complete it and submit it, you might as well do that and just get yourself
a bit ahead. But the UCAS website has a good search function for looking for training providers
in your area.
The first thing you need to do in the apply phase is to choose where you’re thinking of training, so it could be with a school,
or it could be on a programme led by a university. Once you’ve found some schools or universities
you’re interested in applying to, it’s definitely worth trying to speak to them,
or if they’ve got open days or open evenings, go along to those, try and find out more about
what it is they’re offering and what it is they’re looking for as well. Then, you
can list them on your UCAS application form as your three chosen providers.
Writing a personal statement is the key to getting an interview at teacher training.
It’s the main thing they will look at first when determining if you’ve got what it takes
and if you’ve got the right kind of passion to be a teacher. What I always say with a
personal statement is the first paragraph has got to be a strong statement about why
you want to be a teacher and why you’re passionate about teaching children and why
you’re passionate about teaching this particular subject if it’s a secondary subject. The
rest of the document is quite easy, why you’ve got the right skills, why you’ve got the
right experience and the right knowledge, all interlaced with just references to the
fact that you’ve been into schools and you’ve seen it for yourself and that you know actually
what this job is all about. In order to actually get your application
submitted, you need to have two referees who are able to submit your references for you
online. They have to submit those references before you can then
pay your application fee, and then at that point your application goes live and it goes
straight to your three chosen providers. As soon as you have submitted your application,
you can then sit what are called the professional skills tests in literacy and numeracy, where
you’ll go to a test centre and you’ll sit these tests. You can do them both on the
same day or you can do them on different days if you want to. If you go to our website you’ll
find a link through to where you can book the skills tests.
Once your application has been submitted, the training providers will get back to you
hopefully offering you an interview. That can happen quite quickly, usually by email.
You can also track your application on the UCAS system to see what’s happened to it.
If you’ve got an interview coming up, there are various things to do. Obviously very carefully
read the information they’ve sent you and prepare for anything they’ve asked you to
prepare. Bring things with you that you’ll need to bring – so they’ll almost certainly
ask you to bring some kind of ID with you, so make sure you follow all those instructions.
Things to prepare ahead of the interview, think about the obvious questions they’re
going to be asking you. They’re going to want to know and hear you say why you want
to be a teacher. They’ll want to know why you want to train there – so what is it
about that school or that university that’s special that you’re interested in?
You will be toured around the building in a school, they’ll show you all around the
building, take you into classes. If you find things that you like there, tell them about
it. Say ‘I really like that display, that’s a good idea what you’re doing there’.
Try and find things that you like about the place – and also while you’re at it, try
and be honest with yourself, have a look and see do you actually like the place? Do you
want to be here? So after you’ve had your interview, hopefully
the school or the university will get back to you quite quickly and let you know if you’ve
been successful or not. In addition to that you can check on the UCAS site, log into your
file, and it’ll tell you fairly quickly whether you’ve been successful or not.
If you have not been successful in your three applications in Apply 1, or if you decide
once you’ve made your three applications that you want to change your choices and add
a different choice in, you can go into what’s called Apply 2. You can then, on the UCAS
system, choose another school or university and have your application sent to them. It’s
the same application, so the personal statement is exactly the same, everything you put on
the UCAS form is the same, the references are the same, but it goes off to a new training
provider. If that doesn’t work out, you can then add another training provider, then
another, then another and so on until hopefully you get a place.