Qualifying as a Teacher

[Delboy]

My girlfriend is thinking about teaching as a career change (primary school). she currently works in a bank, has a diploma in business studies and is half way through a HR degree.
What are the various colleges/options/ available to becoming a teacher.

any help or advice greatly appreciated, especially from those in teaching....

 

[bleary]

A friend of mine recently did a career change like this
She got work in a primary school 1st for a year or two as a sub then applied in the U.K .
London, St marys strawberry hill and wales (aberstwyth i think) do a conversion course it takes a year to do it full time.
Following a conversion course you have 5 years to complete your irish exams
There are also courses in Ireland these are 18 months there is one in Pats
There is also a course run over the net by hibernia (n?) college
this is for people working in schools already as far as I know.
there was some controversy over the conversion courses in the last year or 2 because graduates from the education degree were finding it difficult to get jobs , I think the situation has got a bit better this year but last year was difficult , 500 new teachers promised in the book of estimates this year
so hopefully that will help

 

[farmer]

The department of education's website details the possibiliites:
http://www.education.ie/home/home.jsp?pcategory=10900&ecategory=19312&language=EN
She will not be able to apply to any of the English colleges for the one year postgrad without a degree.

 

[brokeparent]

To do the post grad. training in an Irish college you need Honours Irish to Leaving Cert. Many of the English colleges stipulate that you need a science subject to Leaving cert in order to do a post grad with them. However this is worth checking out with each college individually as it is not a rquirement in all of them. In Britain this qualification takes one college year to complete and ASFAIK you get paid 6oo punds sterling per month while doing so. No strings attached regarding staying on in the UK after training. Generally speaking schools like to get Irish trained teachers because of the requirement to teach the language but in my (quite extensive) experience if these graduates coming back from England are prepared to work in various schools as substitutes they soon become known in an area and can make themselves more attractive as employees in this way.Good luck to her if she decides to make the change.