Start date:September
Institutional code:O10
UCAS code:Apply direct to UCO
Duration: 2 years
Course type: Part Time
Fees per year 2025/26 entry:£4,000 Part Time
Additional costs per year:DBS Check - £50
Delivery Method:Face-to-face via Lectures, Seminars and Tutorials
Your PGCE in-service in Teacher Training (Lifelong Learning) is an award of University of Huddersfield
If you’re already working as a teacher or trainer at a recognised training or educational establishment within the education and training sector (former post-14 sector) and looking to progress your career, then this course may be ideal for you.
Why Lifelong Learning?
Upon successful completion of this course, you’ll be eligible to proceed, following a process of professional formation through the Society for Education and Training to gain Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) status. This is the full professional status for teachers in the Lifelong Learning Sector.
On this course you’ll have the opportunity to develop the skills to play a full part in teaching and curriculum development. The course allows you to focus on your particular subject specialist area, alongside general teaching in the lifelong learning sector and a significant amount of your learning happens in your place of work – allowing you to put theory into practice.
You’ll also have access to our extensive professional and academic network, which feeds directly into course design and delivery, and to excellent facilities and specialist equipment.
Core Modules
Research Informed Teaching Learning and Assessment
This module aims to develop your understanding of how people learn in the Lifelong Learning Sector and of the role of assessment in enabling learning and achievement. It introduces theories and principles of learning and assessment and develops your ability to apply research evidence in designing effective learning and assessment strategies and materials. It seeks to develop positive approaches to the management of group and individual behaviours and promotes an inclusive approach to teaching, learning and assessment. It introduces the role of key transferable skills and the ways in which people learn English, Maths and digital skills. The module is assessed by means of a practical micro-teaching assignment and the design of an intervention, strategy, activity or resource, underpinned by an understanding of key principles of teaching, learning and assessment.
Becoming a Subject Specialist Teacher
The module reviews your practice as a trainee teacher. It explores your teaching values, knowledge of your subject specialism, and your knowledge and understanding of how you’re learning to teach. You’ll have the opportunity to learn how to identify and respond to students’ needs, and how to use suitable teaching, learning and assessment strategies to develop inclusive teaching and learning environments. You’ll have the chance to evaluate your teaching effectiveness and develop as a reflective practitioner as well as engage in personal and professional development planning, against the appropriate Professional Standards, to recognise and develop relevant subject specialist knowledge, behaviours and skills. This will include further development of English, Maths and digital skills for you and your students.
Being a Subject Specialist Teacher
This module builds on previous generic and subject specialist development in two ways. Firstly, it contributes to your development of more advanced strategies and methods for promoting learning and, secondly, it involves a focus on specific specialist areas and the critical analysis subject specialist pedagogy. The module seeks to enhance your ability to reflect critically on, and to evaluate, teaching and learning; by recognising particular curriculum and professional challenges; and by enabling you to develop 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. The module is assessed through a Teaching Portfolio and a Conference Paper dealing with teaching and learning in the specialist subject.
Please note – this module requires some attendance at the University of Huddersfield campus. You will be informed of the exact dates during the course.
Optional Modules
Optional modules will be decided each year based on student demand:
Curriculum and Context
English as an Additional Language (EAL): Curriculum and Context
SEND: Curriculum and Context
EDI and Social Justice: Curriculum and Context
In-service trainees will normally have a placement when they apply, as they are already working in a teaching role; however, it is possible to come on to the course with a volunteer placement and this should be arranged by the applicant prior to starting the course.
Much of the course is focused on practical teaching. Through your employment or voluntary teaching, you gain experience of learning and teaching alongside other professionals, with support from tutors and your mentor, as a vehicle for your development. Practical experience allows you to gain competence in planning teaching and learning and in working with learners 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. Academic work includes critically examining creativity in teaching, subject specialist related studies, quality assurance and professional issues. Modules also allow you to explore particular areas of interest.
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.
You should normally be in employment as a teacher or trainer at a recognised training or educational establishment for a minimum of 250 hours (at least 125 hours in any one year). Voluntary teaching/training may be acceptable in some circumstances (please check with your local centre).
UK first degree (normally 2:2 or above) or equivalent related to your specialist area
At least a Level 3 or equivalent related to your specialist area
Level 2 Maths and English
Relevant work experience in some specialist subject areas
Provide confirmation of Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check
Provide one satisfactory reference
Complete a satisfactory interview
Identify a work-based mentor who can support you in your subject specialism
If you already hold a teaching qualification at level 4 or above or have substantial knowledge and experience of teaching you may be able to make a claim for accreditation of prior learning.
You will normally be offered a place on the Postgraduate Certificate in Education or the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (Advanced PGCE in Lifelong Learning). Alternatively, you may be considered for a place on the Professional Graduate Certificate in Education.