Start date:September
Institutional code:O10
Duration: 1 year
Course type:Full Time
Fees per year 2025/26 entry:£8,000 Full Time
Additional costs per year:DBS Check - £50
How to Apply:Apply direct to UCO
Delivery Method:Face-to-face via Lectures, Seminars and Tutorials
Your CertEd pre-service in Teacher Training (Lifelong Learning) is an award of University of Huddersfield
If you have previous knowledge and experience and all you need are the skills and qualifications required to make your contribution in teaching, this course could be for you. No previous experience of teaching is necessary. Successful students have gone on to teach in further education colleges, adult education and a wide range of other training and educational settings.
This course provides a route to Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS), the full professional status for teachers in lifelong learning. The course can also lead to employment in secondary schools.
The Certificate in Education (lifelong learning), Professional Graduate Certificate in Education (Lifelong Learning), Postgraduate Certificate in Education (lifelong learning) and Post Graduate Diploma in Education (lifelong learning) are structured around modules which are based on different aspects of teachers’ work such as designing learning materials, assessing students, and evaluating learning and teaching.
Academic credit is gained by undertaking assignments and providing evidence of achievement. This allows you to explore topics that are of interest to you, relevant to your working environment, and to your career development. As part of the course, you will complete a subject specialist module. This requires attendance at the University of Huddersfield campus. You will be informed of the exact dates during the course.
Research Informed Teaching Learning and Assessment
This module develops an understanding of how people learn in post-compulsory education and training and of the role of assessment. You will be assessed on an assignment in two parts (coursework together worth 100% of the module). For the first part, you will plan, prepare, deliver and reflect on a learning session contextualised within your own role in Education & Training. You will also write a critical account investigating the learning needs of specified learners and discussing how you have planned, enabled and assessed their learning.
Becoming a Subject Specialist Teacher
This module is designed to help you learn how to identify and respond to learners’ needs with suitable teaching, learning and assessment strategies. You will engage in personal and professional development planning and, through two pieces of coursework, together worth 100% of the module marks, develop your practice. The first task, a teaching practitioner file, will include a personal development plan, observations of your teaching and a structured, reflective journal; and the second task, a reflective personal skills presentation, may take the form of your choice.
Being a Subject Specialist Teacher
This module builds on previous generic and subject specialist development in two ways. Firstly, it contributes to the development of more advanced strategies and methods for promoting learning and, secondly, it involves a sharper focus on specific specialist areas and the critical analysis of their pedagogy. The module achieves these purposes by enhancing the ability to reflect critically on, and to evaluate, teaching and learning; by recognising particular curriculum and professional challenges; and by developing critical responses to these concerns in sophisticated, innovative and creative ways. Key learning activities of the module are practical teaching experience and the engagement with other specialists through collaborative practice.
Curriculum and Context
This module will develop your critical understanding of policy and issues relating to curriculum development in lifelong learning. You will explore the impact of policy on curriculum development and draw on appropriate evidence to evaluate curriculum practice and discuss possible improvements.
The module will cover the internal and
external factors that drive curriculum change and consider key contemporary issues in lifelong learning that impact upon curriculum development and design. It aims to engage trainees in critical reflection on the policy and practice of education and training for lifelong learners.
The module promotes an analytical and reflexive understanding of the factors that inform curriculum development and delivery in lifelong learning provision.
Much of the course is focused on the experience of practical teaching. You gain experience of learning and teaching alongside other professionals with support from tutors at UCO, as a vehicle for your professional development. We help you to find a suitable placement.
Practical experience allows you to gain competence in planning, teaching and learning, and in working with students both in formal classrooms and in student centred learning situations, such as drop in study centres.
During the course you undertake project work, such as developing new course materials.
Students also benefit from on-site careers advisors, alongside full access to the award winning careers services at the University of Huddersfield. So from compiling the perfect CV to specialist, tailored help to reach your career goals, students at UCO have access to the best support possible to achieve their career goals.
The focus of this course is on practical teaching. You gain experience of learning and teaching alongside other professionals with support from tutors and work based mentors. You will gain competence in planning, teaching and learning; and in working with students; with assessment of your progress taking place in formal classrooms and in student-centred learning situations.
The Education and Training Consortium (ETC) was formally constituted in 2001 , a pioneering collaborative partnership between FE and the University of Huddersfield focusing on teacher education awards for the ‘Lifelong Learning Sector’. Geographically, ETC members are dispersed across the north of England from Hull to Liverpool, but there are member institutions as far afield as Northumberland, Norfolk and Essex. The colleges partners are the key sites of practice and offer a huge store of knowledge and expertise. The University of Huddersfield retains responsibility for academic standards and quality assurance; Key beneficiaries are the students who, in this case, are both in-service and pre-service trainee teachers – beyond whom are the thousands of FE learners they teach.
Applications accepted via UCAS/DfE (contact HE Student Services for further information)
Qualifications at a minimum of NVQ level 3 in the subject area you teach
Evidence a minimum of level 2 Maths and English or a GCSE grade C / 4 equivalent in both subjects
Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS, formerly Criminal Records Bureau) clearance checks; date and associated reference number
Satisfactory Interview