A Career in Teaching

Inspire a bright future

Search our PGCE courses

A Career in Teaching

Inspire a bright future

Search our PGCE courses

8th

for student satisfaction in Education

Complete University Guide 2023

Outstanding

for both primary and secondary teacher education

Ofsted 2023

Top 10

in the UK for teaching satisfaction

Guardian University Guide 2023

Become a qualified teacher in one year

Are you ready to start your career in teaching? Studying a PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate in Education) course allows you to qualify as a teacher within one year. You can choose from primary or secondary routes depending on your career goals.

Our teacher training courses have a strong national and international reputation. We have a long and distinguished record of training teachers, dating back to 1839.

Search our PGCE courses

Trainee teacher sat with Primary school student

The Be You Podcast

Episode 6 - Being a Trainee Teacher

Why Teach?

Start teaching and inspire the next generation

Teaching is one of the most rewarding, interesting yet challenging professions. Teachers are responsible for ensuring that children enjoy learning and gain an education that will enable them to flourish in contemporary society. Join our thriving community of lecturers and staff and enjoy training to teach.

Search our PGCE courses

High-quality support and education

Learn why we're rated Outstanding by Ofsted

Inspiring Curriculum

Students "develop comprehensive curriculum and pedagogical knowledge, which they apply skilfully and confidently in different contexts".

Personalised Support

University and school staff support students "to thrive through their highly effective ‘team around the trainee’ approach".

Prepared for Employment

Students "leave very well placed to continue on their journey towards being aspirational, inspirational and motivational teachers".

Research-driven

Students "engage critically with research, reflect on their own development and learn to evaluate different approaches to teaching".

Learn more

Bursaries and Scholarships

Learn more about the bursaries available for teacher training

Starting a career in teaching is not as expensive as you might think, and in some subjects, you can even get up to £29,000 of Government funding.

Learn more

Search our courses

Our PGCE Routes

PGCE Primary Route

Our Primary Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) programme is designed to ensure that you become a skilled and confident primary school teacher. Working in close partnership with local schools, the course offers high quality Masters level study and professional training from expert tutors.

The programme will help you to develop your skills of critical analysis and enable you to engage with educational research and apply this in the classroom. The PGCE lasts approximately 38 weeks and you will spend 24 of these on a range of contrasting placements in our partner schools.

Whilst in school, you will be supported to develop as a teacher and will take on increasing responsibility for teaching and assessing pupils. By the end of the course, you’ll be equipped as a reflective practitioner ready to teach your own class and to continue your professional learning throughout your career.

PGCE Secondary Route

The Secondary PGCE programme provides high quality training in nine different subjects. The majority of the course (25 of the 38 weeks) is spent teaching in our partner schools.

Ours is an innovative course which emphasises the relationship between theory and practice. We do this through combining the expertise of university tutors with the expertise of the teachers in our partner schools.

Throughout the course you will have all the benefits of training in school while also having access to the wide range of knowledge, resources and support services provided by the university.

Assessment Only Route

Ideal for those already working in a school who want to gain Qualified Teacher Status in Primary or Secondary education via the Assessment Only Route.

Gaining QTS will enable you to teach in any school in the country whether state-maintained, independent or an academy.

For Assessment Only route, the assessment phase would normally last up to 12 weeks after successful completion of the Initial Assessment Visit by a university assessor.

iPGCE with iQTS

Building on our extensive experience of working with teachers across the globe, we have launched a new iPGCE with iQTS programme to meet the needs of potential teachers.

This programme is a new teaching qualification that allows you to train where you live and work, with no need to visit the UK. iQTS meets the same high standards as English Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and leads to the automatic award of QTS on completion.

You can be taught by highly experienced, expert tutors at a gold-rated university (TEF, 2023) with over 180 years' experience in teacher education.