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PGCE

Post Compulsory Education and Training (PcET)

Turn your academic expertise into a rewarding career as a teacher in further, adult and vocational education.

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Key Course Details

  • UCAS Code

    2V9X

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Newport

  • Campus Code

    C

Fees

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Newport

  • Campus Code

    C

Fees

A nationally recognised teaching qualification designed for those confident with educational or sociological writing, or those who may later be interested in pursuing an MA in Education.

Designed For

Students or graduates of a degree course seeking a meaningful and stable profession in teaching. You’ll be passionate about the subject you wish to teach and eager to share your expertise and knowledge in an educational environment.

Career Paths

  • Teacher 
  • Learning Mentor 
  • Trainer 
  • Tutor 

Skills taught

  • Developing pedagogy
  • Literacies for professional practice 
  • Equity in teaching and learning
  • Research

Students and Lecturers sitting in a classroom at USW campus in Newport

Course Highlights

Train to teach in just one year

Successfully completing the full-time course will mean that you can qualify to teach in the sector in one year.

Flexible study options

If you’re in part-time employment, or already working in a PcET environment, our part-time route lets you qualify as a teacher in just two years.

Supportive teaching

Our expert course team brings vast experience from across PcET, working together to support you in building the values, knowledge, and skills you need to thrive as a teacher.

Placement opportunities

Put theory into practice by working and teaching in the industry, allowing you to graduate with the experience employers are looking for.

Financial incentives

You may be eligible for a government incentive to study on a PcET course.

Module Overview

This course prepares you for a career as a teacher in the post-compulsory education and training sector. You’ll attend collaborative learning sessions, work on a PcET placement with a mentor and colleagues, and undertake independent study to develop values, knowledge, and skills. Full-time students will complete six modules in one-year, and part-time students will complete three modules each year.

Planning for Learning
This module acts as a foundation and underpins the starting points for the course. You’ll be introduced to planning principles for short-term and long-term planning through completion of a peer-teach and scheme of learning.  

Assessing for Learning
In this module, you’ll develop assessment principles and understand how these are used to create assessment tools and learner profiles, designing activities that meet the needs of learners.

Developing Professional Practice
This module includes planning, resourcing, and teaching a minimum of 50 hours including 3 successful observations of your teaching. During this time, you will also observe qualified teachers and consider how to develop from challenging incidents.

Practice-based Research
This module develops research-informed practice in response to a challenge experienced in your teaching at placement. You’ll develop research skills such as interviewing and other data collection to inform pedagogical actions as part of an action research cycle.

Literacies for Learning
This module explores ideas about communication and literacy e.g., digital, visual, graphic, written, and numerical in everyday life and teaching. You’ll be assessed via a noticeboard and an interactive exhibition.

Extending Professional Practice
This module extends from Developing Professional Practice, and includes further planning, resourcing, and teaching of a further minimum of 50 hours including another 3 successful observations of your teaching.

Course Highlights

How you’ll learn

You’ll learn through a mixture of collaborative learning activities, discussions, interactive learning and placement opportunities. Your classroom will include students from a wide range of backgrounds and subject specialisms, allowing you to combine pedagogical principles and experience a wealth of peer-to-peer learning which will be invaluable for your placement. 

You’ll be assessed in a range of ways including by interactive exhibitions and observations of your teaching. Assessments are built on putting theory into practice and therefore mimic what you would naturally be doing in the role of a teacher. All course content is mapped to professional standards in both England and Wales, so that you are best prepared for the world of work depending on where you choose to settle after graduation.  

Teaching staff

The Post Compulsory Education and Training teaching team are all experienced teacher trainers, who started their careers as teachers in Further, Adult and Community and/or Secondary education. They come from a wide range of subject backgrounds including Maths, Science, Art, Computing, English (ESOL and Adult Literacy) and ICT, and have a range of teaching and research interests. They are part of well-connected network – and regularly attend seminars and conferences to present PcET based research.

Placements

Placements are an integral part of this course, running alongside core modules and contributing significantly to assessments. For the full-time route, you’ll undertake a minimum of 100 hours of teaching, 30 hours of observation, and 10 hours of departmental duties, such as planning and assessment meetings. For the part-time route, this will be distributed across two years.

You will be assigned a mentor during your placement and will be observed by our teaching team for supervision and support. Your mentor will remain the same throughout the duration of the placement, allowing you to build a relationship and feel confident in asking for guidance and advice. Full-time students will be assigned a placement by our teaching team after discussing your interests and expertise. Part-time students should arrange a placement in their chosen field or industry.

Facilities

The interactive learning element of this course will be facilitated via classroom simulation and mimic teaching, utilising our Hydra Simulation Suite. The Hydra Simulation Suite provides a unique learning and teaching environment and is used to conduct immersive, simulated scenarios to allow you to practice your skills in a collaborative environment. A large proportion of your studies will utilise the library and you’ll have access to classrooms and bookable learning spaces throughout your time on the course.


To help facilitate your studies, the Welsh Government provides financial incentives for students looking to study on a PcET course. Our teaching team will discuss this and action this for you if you are eligible.  

Careers and Employability

Graduate careers

Our graduates find success across a wide range of sectors within Post Compulsory Education and Training (PcET), including colleges, training providers like ACT, adult and community learning, work-based learning environments, and prison settings. Many of our students secure full or part-time roles in the institutions where they completed their placements, thanks to the strong professional network and real-world opportunities provided throughout the course.

Possible career paths

Graduates often progress into rewarding careers as PcET practitioners, contributing to the development of education in a diverse range of settings. Past students of this course have secured roles as teachers, learning mentors and tutors. Additionally, upon completion of this qualification, many go on to further their education by pursuing further degrees in education at postgraduate level (MA Education), continuing their professional growth and expanding their career potential.

Careers Support

Alongside the careers service at USW, the Post Compulsory Education and Training teaching team offers personalized career support throughout the course. You’ll receive tutorials on building professional networks, mock interview sessions, and employment preparation. In your final term, you'll have a dedicated destination planning session with your personal tutor, and the teaching team will be available for guidance on job applications and job searching. Additionally, many of our past students return as mentors, providing valuable advice and support to new cohorts of teacher trainees.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

Typical qualification requirements:

You would need to hold a level 6 qualification in their teaching subject area, along with one or more year’s vocational experience in their teaching subject (where relevant). Once with us, you will develop skills, confidence and understanding of learning, teaching and assessment in your subject and general professional practice for the sector.

Additional requirements

Suitable applicants will be invited to attend an interview day either online or at the Newport Campus, which is an important part of getting to know each other and getting to know the course. You will be asked to give a short presentation about how your experiences and qualifications support becoming a teacher in PcET. There will also be an opportunity to ask any questions. You can find more information about the interview day here.

An Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check on the Child Workforce and Child Barring List and subscription to the DBS Update Service is required. (Overseas equivalent required for non-uk applicants).

International applications welcomed:

We welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications of our entry requirements. For more details related to your country of residence, please view our dedicated country pages.

English language requirements

International applicants will need to have achieved an overall of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component/TOEFL 72 overall and a minimum of 18 in reading, 17 in listening, 20 in speaking and 17 in writing or equivalent.

Equivalents can be located on our English Language pages.

If you have previously studied through the medium of English, IELTS might not be required, please visit our country specific page for further details. If your country is not featured, please contact us.

If you do not meet the English entry criteria, please visit our Pre-Sessional course pages.

Contextual offers

We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended, for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer, and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.

USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.

 

We're here to help

Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch, and we'd love to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.

 

Fees and Funding

Further Information

Studying at university is one of the most significant investments you'll ever make. Whilst you’re studying, you’ll have two main financial obligations – tuition fees and living costs. There’s lots of financial help available from the University of South Wales and external funding sources, that may provide loans (which have to be paid back) and grants, scholarships and bursaries (that don't).

*Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits. Once enrolled, the fee is anticipated to remain at the same rate throughout the duration of your study on this course except as described below.

Please be aware that we may increase the maximum fee for home students on full-time undergraduate courses only where the Welsh Government increases the permitted level of inflation of fees. Fees for all students (including part-time, postgraduate and international students) may be amended in accordance with our applicable Fees and Debt Management Policy.  We will ensure that students are given clear, intelligible, unambiguous and timely information about our courses and costs in good time, ahead of the next academic year.

 

Fees and Funding Scholarships and Busaries Alumni Discount

Additional Costs

As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.

 Students will be expected to pay for a DBS or certificate of good behaviour from their home country. The DBS fee includes £49.50 for the enhanced DBS certificate, the Post Office Administration fee and the online administration fee

Cost: £64.74

Subscription required for each year of the course for a yearly fee of £16. Please note the service has to be joined within 30 days of receipt of your enhanced DBS certificate

Cost: £16

Travel to and from placement and any additional costs levied by placements.

Cost is dependent on placement location and is an additional cost to be met by students.

University Quality Assurance

At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.

If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.

THE PCET COURSE HAS TAKEN MY SUBJECT SPECIALISM AND PROVIDED ME WITH THE TOOLS TO SUPPORT EVEN MORE PEOPLE TO LEARN.

Post Compulsory Education and Training Student

I NOW FEEL CONFIDENT IN BOTH MYSELF AND MY NEWLY ACQUIRED TEACHING ABILITIES, AND I AM EAGERLY LOOKING FORWARD TO A CAREER THAT I GENUINELY ENJOY.

Post Compulsory Education and Training Student

Studying at USW

Our courses are designed with industry leaders and provide the practical skills and experiences industry demands. Our flexible courses reflect the need for life-long learning. If you value education in practice, not just in theory, then USW is for you.

Two people studying together at a table, surrounded by books and papers.
Postgraduate fees and funding
University of South Wales Newport Campus.
Newport Campus
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Postgraduate Open Events

How to apply

There is an online application process for this course. Please choose the application form for your preferred start date and mode of study (i.e. full-time or part-time).

International admissions

Please see our international admissions advice for further information about how to apply as a prospective international student.

Next Steps

How to Apply
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