PCGE Presentation

Myself and two of my fellow peers were asked to bring some notes to a session with the rest of our peers, we were then asked to give a presentation to my peers and the tutor as to our individual research findings concerning further education after graduation, specifically to do with PGCE courses. I thought that this brings together two of my PDP goals, to research into PGCE courses and also to practice my presentation skills, I accepted the invitation to have an informal chat with the rest of my group. I have already seen myself developing professionally during my three years at university and have noticed my confidence develop also in terms of being able to talk to others in a professional manner and about my work/ other work. I will continue to develop this life/ business skill throughout my life and this goal will be ongoing as I aim to develop this for the foreseeable future.  

I was glad that I went to this session because I also learnt a lot of useful information from the session from the other peers that presented their research and also from their experience in terms of applying, interview and acceptance upon their chosen course. It was also great to hear my tutors feelings on different routes into education, what is expected and what is needed as well as what certain courses entail. Overall, a very enjoyable and interesting session!

I will now mention some of the things that I picked up on/ learnt during the session. Firstly, it was mentioned that I should check out a course called "7307 teacher training". I will go away and research this! the second point that I jotted down was the HEA, also known as the higher education academy, I will now show some research that I did into this organisation.

The Higher Education Academy champions excellent learning and teaching in higher education.

We are a national and independent organisation, funded by the four UK HE funding bodies and by subscriptions and grants.

Our mission, as stated in our Strategic Plan 2012-2016, is to use our expertise and resources to support the higher education community in order to enhance the quality and impact of learning and teaching. We do this by recognising and rewarding excellent teaching, bringing together people and resources to research and share best practice, and by helping to influence, shape and implement policy.

Central to our service is providing academic staff with professional recognition, networking and development opportunities, and advice and support throughout their careers. As the UK's main provider of resources, events and workshops relating to learning and teaching in higher education, we offer services in 28 different disciplines, and have offices in England, Wales and Scotland.

Another point that I took from the session was that I should look at jobs.ac.uk, in particular the studentships that they advertise. I will create a further post into this.

The text below is the same text that I wrote in preparation for the presentation. I wanted to be organised and prepared for this presentation to show that I am capable of planning a speech, something that I will have to do when I have graduated university. Speaking in front of others is one of the goals and this presentation is all part of my development, I learnt that although this session was somewhat formal, I was able to prepare information and deliver it to others when asked to. There have been other instances where I have had to present/ talk to others and I will blog about those times in a separate blog post. 

Planning and preparing a sheet of information really helped me to present successfully, I felt confident in what I was talking about but I also knew that if needed, I had the information in bullet point in front of me in order to prompt me. As my presentation skills develop I will hopefully eventually be able to talk without the aid of prompt cards/ information. I will continue to grab every opportunity to present and am positive that I will soon develop my presentational skills to a higher standard!

Further Education Talk

Ben Stokes

9/4/14

What we were asked: The three of you are all interested in, applying for or have been accepted on postgraduate courses. In light of this I wondered if you would be happy to discuss your reason's for, research undertaken and application processes with the rest of the group on Wednesday 9 April from 11.15am. Can you spend around 15 mins each discussing this with links/examples. I will then discuss my knowledge and experiences drawing upon your informal presentations.

Reasons for looking into postgraduate courses:

·      I want to give myself another possible career route for after graduating.

·      I have always been interested in the idea of teaching.

·      I aspire to teach in either a secondary school or a college/ sixth form.

·      I studied Interactive Media & Photography at college and the tutors inspired me to think about teaching as a job!

What I have found out:

·      A few of us recently attended a talk by Dr David Spendlove. He talked about the positives of joining his post graduate teacher training course at the University of Manchester.

·      One thing that stood out to me from the presentation is that he mentioned there isn't many jobs available in the FE sector and that not many colleges tend to have a purely photography course, although some may have other digital media courses.

·      This really brought me back down to reality and it made me think about the possibility of teaching at secondary schools, something that also interests me now that I have more information about it.

·      I need to take a year out from university and focus on getting enough time in school to gain experience and essential skills.

·      The university that provides the teacher training will expect at least some evidence that an applicant has been getting experience in schools, colleges or six forms.

·      I will then re-apply for September 2015 once I have enough school experience.

Schools Direct

·      This is an alternative route that can be taken in order to become a qualified teacher, it involves more time being in the school and focus is on learning how to teach on the job.

·      In reality, Dr Spendlove mentioned that there isn’t actually a massive noticeable difference in time actually spent in school between the two routes into teaching.

Funding

·      Depending on which university that you choose depends on how much bursary that they award you. The amount of money also depends on which subject you intend to teach.

·      For example, the design and technology teaching course at Manchester University awards each applicant with £9000.

     Wednesday 9th April 1.30pm - 2.30pm in Room 3.10 / 3.11 in MCUK

·      The School of Arts and Media is running a Post Graduate Programme session for our Arts and Media UG Students.

·      A panel of academic staff, students and alumni from Art & Design, Media, Animation, Journalism and English will be talking and answering questions about the range of postgraduate programmes we offer within the school, the benefits of studying at Postgraduate Level at the University of Salford, the funding available for you and how the post graduate taught programmes are delivered within the School of Arts and Media.