Careers Brief - Education Support (Teaching Assistants) FdA
Overview
Your part-time Foundation degree in Education Support (Teaching Assistants) will have given you both a nationally recognised qualification at a Higher Education level and evidence of your ability in your field. You will also have the opportunity for progression onto honours degree programmes.
Education and social care are among the largest employment sectors in the UK and opportunities are buoyant. However, to progress your career, you will need to be prepared to do further training and preferably be mobile.
Before deciding whether to continue on to complete the honours degree, take time to review your career plans, as alternative applied training courses might be more appropriate, particularly within the allied health and social care professions. Apart from the knowledge and experience of work with children and young people gained from your employment and training, you will also have developed additional effective transferable skills, such as group working, numeracy, giving presentations and IT.
Use the web links below in the Resources section, to find out more about the variety of opportunities open to you, entry and training routes. To consider a wider choice of careers, matched to your interests, use Prospects Planner and other tools listed in the Career Planning section of this Guide.
Further Study
Shortened one to two years full-time top-up degrees are designed as a progression from Foundation degrees to qualify for an Ordinary or Honours degree.
On successful completion of the Foundation degree, you will be able to progress onto the BA Hons Early Years Care and Education (Top-up) degree at Bournemouth University .
Other related top-up degrees:
University of Bath 'Early Years Care and Education'; University of Bedfordshire 'Educational Practice'; Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln 'Professional Studies in Education (non-QTS)' 'Professional Studies in Primary Education QTS'; Bradford College (Associate of Leeds Metropolitan University) 'Early Childhood Studies' 'Education with QTS';
University of Central England in Birmingham 'Early Childhood Educational Studies'; University of Central Lancashire 'Education'; Doncaster College 'Early childhood Studies'; Guildford College of Further and Higher Education 'Early Childhood Studies'; Kingston University 'Early Years: Education and Child Care'; Peterborough Regional College 'Education'.
To search for other suitable honours degree courses, use www.ucas.com/search . Use the university/college links for course details. Entry point could depend on the overlap between courses, your grades and experience.
You will need to use UCAS to apply for courses. Contact the Course Tutor of your chosen course to find out your position, before you make your formal application.
Find out how much this will cost you. Where is the funding coming from? Use the website www.aimhigher.ac.uk for information on student support.
If you aim to become a teacher and have not taken a degree course with QTS (Qualified Teacher Status) you will need to apply through the GTTR (Graduate Teacher Training Registry) for a PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate in Education) course at the beginning of Level 3. If you were born after September 1 st 1979 , you will need maths and English (at grade C or above) at GCSE or equivalent and science at GCSE or equivalent. Go to the Teacher Training Agency careers site below for more information.
Resources
www.prospects.ac.uk
Graduate Prospects is the national careers website for higher education students in the UK:
- Drop down 'Career advice' and click on 'Your Foundation degree...what next?'
- Drop down 'Communities' and click on 'Education'
- Drop down 'My Prospects' and click on 'What job would suit me?' for Prospects Planner
www.tda.gov.uk
Training and development agency for schools - includes 'Get into teaching'
http://targetjobs.co.uk
GTI (publisher) graduate jobs and careers
www.learndirect-advice.co.uk/helpwithyourcareer/jobprofiles
Learn Direct - national learning advice
www.connexions-direct.com/jobs4u
Jobs4U Careers Database - click on 'Job Families & Articles' or Quick Search by typing in job title
www.get.hobsons.co.uk
Hobsons (publisher) Graduate Employment & Training
jobseekers.direct.gov.uk
Careers database and links to jobs nationally. Search by either clicking on 'careers' and 'choosing a category' or typing in job title.
http://student.bton.ac.uk/studserv/careers/whatelsecanateacherdo.htm
University of Brighton Careers Service guide 'What else can a teacher do except teach?'
jobs.tes.co.uk
The Times Educational Supplement for jobs and careers advice
www.jobs.guardian.co.uk
The Guardian jobs pages
www.lgjobs.com
Local government jobs
www.teacher-online.co.uk
Teacher online for job opportunities in the independent sector
www.socialworkandcare.co.uk
Social Care and Social Work careers information site for social work training and jobs in care without a degree
www.communitycare.co.uk
Community Care, the leading social care information provider - includes jobs and employer search
www.basw.co.uk
British Association of Social Workers - information and jobs
www.careandhealth.com
Care and Health magazine - features and jobs
www.nhscareers.nhs.uk
National Health Service site to find out about careers in the NHS and look for jobs
www.nmas.ac.uk
Nursing & Midwifery Admissions service for course directory and applications
