Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Lets you know everything there is to know about entering teaching |
| Disadvantages: |
Could potentially recruit the wrong people into the profession |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
Those who can…teach!
Canteach.gov.uk is the government’s teacher training recruitment website. It is operated and promoted by the Teacher Training Agency for the UK and Wales.
The site is designed to recruit people to the teaching profession and provide information on how to get there.
I think the site’s homepage has a good summarising statement, and I know people will hound this op for simply copying and pasting this, but I thought I would anyway…
“Teaching gives you the opportunity to fire up the interests, imaginations and hopes of a new generation. What other career comes close? You will be well paid, have great career prospects and you may receive financial help to train.”
Being a Teacher
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It tells you why teaching is a good profession, why it might appeal to you, and how it compares to other
careers.
The site then goes through considerations you would want to make, such as what age group you would want to teach, what subject you would like teaching, and the financial support which is available.
The financial support is mainly focused on postgraduate potentials – with subsidised tuition; and a training salary of £6000 plus various other incentives if you teach the current priority and shortage subjects. This, I think is wrong, as it has the potential to recruit people into the profession who wouldn’t otherwise enter it – and let’s face it, it isn’t exactly an unimportant role, is it!? – I think you have to REALLY want to do it!
You are then taken through various progression routes you could take once you are in teaching, and shows you just how far you can go with this profession. You can become an advanced skills teacher, head of department or even headteacher – and this is the site to explain just how to get there.
You are also told exactly what you need to do to gain QTS (Qualified Teacher Status) in order to teach in the UK.
Obviously, on a recruitment website, the thing you are most interested in is the pay – and this is also included in great detail: A starting salary for new teachers, according to the site, is now £18,105 per annum. This compares favourably to other careers such as accountancy, journalism and PR, according to the website.
There is much detail about pay, and the website gives the scales of pay progression, which move up as much as £94,098 for a head in inner London – more than I ever thought!
(The above figures are correct as April 2003)
Routes into Teaching
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The site has a stand-alone section that tells you specific routes into teaching to suit you - depending on your circumstances.
Basically, to teach in the UK, you need to have achieved Qualified Teaching Status. In order to get this, you need to carry out specialised teacher training. This can be in the form of various routes:
• Undergraduate Route – This is when you undertake a 3 or 4 years BA, BSc, or B.Ed which incorporate QTS into the qualification. These are mostly in primary school teaching, although secondary school teaching is available in these courses as well.
• PGCE (Post Graduate Certificate in
Education) – This is for graduates to embark upon having completed their degree and decide they want to enter teaching. This is one year long.
• SCITT (School Centered Initial Teacher Training) – This is also for graduates, and often one year long. It obviously carries the QTS, and sometimes accredited by an institution which will award trainees a PGCE as well.
• RTP – Registered teacher program – which is based in a school and trainees have completed 2 years of their degree, and complete their final year by part time study, and train to become a teacher at the same time.
• GTP – Graduate teacher program – this is when a graduate enters a school as a teacher and is paid an unqualified teacher’s salary (around £13k) while they train – this often takes around 2 years to complete.
• Flexible routes are also available.
The site guides you through the route best for you.
Are you a…?
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This section of the site gives potential trainees examples and success stories of qualified teachers, what they teach, and the route they took to get there.
Returning to teach
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This section gives advice to teachers who left the profession and may want to consider returning. There is help available to them as well as newly qualified teachers. The site quotes that last year 13,000 teachers returned to the classroom!
Training
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This section shows you exactly what training there is available (basically reiterates the routes mentioned above).
News
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On the site is also up-to-date recruitment news, which potential trainees may find useful.
I think the site is very comprehensive, and does a good job in recruiting people into the vocation of teaching – however, I do feel that you have to have an interest in the first place in order to visit the site and actually LET it interest you!! (if that makes sense!) – in other words, I don’t think recruits people who have never considered teaching before, but more sways people who are unsure on whether to enter the profession to enter it!
The site has certainly helped me in deciding that teaching is what I want to go into. However – I have always known this! It provides a good account of what to expect, and the fact that it goes through EVERYTHING you might want to know about teaching, including giving real examples of people’s lives as teachers. I think, however, that the site may be improved by including a message board or chat room in order to get ‘undiluted’ advice and be able to chat to teacher and fellow potential trainees.
Other sites of interest:
www.tta.gov.uk – The teacher training agency
www.fasttrackteaching.gov.uk – Fast Track Teaching Website
www.gttr.ac.uk – How to apply for teacher training.
Thank you for reading.
Mark.
