Catherine83

Dear all
My family and I moved to Australia, Sydeney NSW 4 weeks ago after being granted a permentanly residency visa basked on my skill as a secondary school teacher. Luckily my husband secured a job before we left which meant that I could settle my children before launching into work. I have been teaching for 6 years now an have glowing references and experience. I was also head of year and hve been head of sixth form in the UK.
I have just finished registering with the institute of education in NSW after having all my documentation which they requested checked and verfifed by the justice of peace. All my checks including my WWCC have come back cleared and approved.
I am therefore completely distraught as I have just received an email from NSW regarding my accreditation and eligibility to teach which states that I must complete further units of study at university in order to get accreditation to teach the subjects I have been teaching for the last 6 years. I have been teaching Religious Education and ethics and philosophy at ALevel as well as geography, citizenship and history. Mthey have told me that the reason being is that even though my postgraduate degree PGCe is in religious education my undergraduate degree is not as therefore I have to do further degrees of study and units at Uni. My undergraduate degree is in psychology and sociology so I should be able to teach society and culture and yet I have been told that I still need to do extra unIts at Uni in order to be approved to teach that subject to.

I am completely shocked and bewildered as to how this can be, especially with all my experience and having fully qualified in the UK. I am now contemplating calling it a day an relocating back which again is going to be so costly but I see no other alternative as at my age and time in my life I don't want to go back and do further degrees to add to my student debt or have to start all over again when I was a well paid established teacher in the UK.

Anyone with any experience or advice would be greatly appreciated as I really don't know what to do, and I don't have any friends or family here that I can ask for advice or help.

Thank you
Catherine

beatle

Hi Australia has very high qualifications standards that equate to every teacher having to have a four year trained degree, though in your case I think you would qualify. Could you spell out what your undergraduate was in and your pgce.
For example I have first degree in communications (three year) a second graduate degree in teaching (2 years), now I am doing a masters (1 year) in order to qualify to teach a slightly different age!

Catherine83

My undergraduate degree is a BSC in Psychology and Sociology and my post graduate degree in teaching is a in Religious Studies to teach secondary level students.
I'm really confused about the whole process. Have been told that I can teach casual but cannot secure a permanent position in government schools. Does this therefore mean I can teach in the private sector or catholic schools?

Thank you for your help.... Really contemplating going back home to my good job!

Catherine83

Update::
I wish I had known about this months ago! I have just received a 'Provisional Accreditation' to teach in NSW from the NSW Institute of Teachers, which outlines that I have to complete '2 units of degree level study from another key learning area in religious education' before I can apply for a permanent teaching job here.

I completed my 3 year undergraduate degree in in 2005 and completed a PGCE secondary 7 years ago. I have just moved to Sydney having been teaching in London for 6 years and thought that the accreditation to teach would be straight forward.

I am now being told that I have to go back to universty to complete 2 undergraduate modules and was told on the phone that the NSW Institute 'are not interested in looking at teaching degrees or teaching experience, just undergraduate degrees'. This was the last thing I was expecting and it doesn't make any sense to me! Why is the content of a degree I completed years ago more important than the content of my PGCE and my recent teaching experience?

I was also confused when asked for the 'transcripts' of my degree and now I wish I had elaborated more on what I did. Howerver, there is no information to say what they are looking for when they assess eligibility to teach and what kind of modules, as part of a degree, would fuflill their criteria.

There must be loads of Brits who have moved here and been stuck in the same situation. I'd appreciate some advice as I can't afford to go back to Uni and I don't want to either. I need to be working and want to work in the job I am trained in, teaching. There was no information on the NSW Institute of Teachers website or the NSW Education website to indicate that this might happen. Having spoken to them, they just seem so inflexible and I am at a loss a to what to do.

I feel really stupid that I didn't know about this before emigrating with my wife to Australia. I gave up a great teaching job to move here and the only option may be to go back to England to find a permanent job if I can't work here.

old.sparkles

I'm sorry I don't know much about teaching - there are a few teachers in the Australian forums, but I don't know how often they check this forum.

Why not try and arrange a chat with someone at your local uni to find out what they know, and how long / cost of doing the extra units. You may find it wont be as bad as you think. Also check what the provisional accreditation will allow you to do.

Transcript of your study can be obtained from your original University - it just gives a list of units of study, length of study, grade for unit etc (I think - I got a transcript for HNC from UWIC by completing a form on their website). I've found that most people will be helpful if you approach them for the advice.

Hope that helps

Catherine83

Thanks for your help. Looks like my best option is to retrain for 6-12 months in the primary sector, however i have no idea about how much this would cost. Any advice would be helpful.

globetrekkers

HI Catherine, I'd be interested to see how you go on with retraining in Australia. I am trying to get my skills assessed before we apply but it's proving to be very difficult
The transcripts of your degree is the breakdown of all your modules with the score you achieved for each year you completed. They are sent out at the end or each year of your course. You can get copies from your university/colleges. Mine just cost me £10 and I received it in the week although they said 8 weeks. Hope that helps

jackieh23

'2 units of degree level study from another key learning area in religious education'

I realise you are peeved but rather a knee jerk reaction (IMO) to go back to the UK rather than spend 13 weeks at Uni, either on or off campus (so you can still do relief teaching during the day) at a cost varying from $4 - $5k dependant on Uni.

Catherine83

Hi everyone,sorry haven't written on here for a while as have been really busy.here is a quick update: I had my interview with the DEC in NSW at he end of Jan who said I was more than qualified to teach in Australia and that they would really appreciate having someone like me with the experience and training that I have had. He explained that i could teach on a perm basis in private, independent or catholic schools just not in public schools but i was able to teach on a casual basis in the public sector.
The education inspector gave me two options to either do modules at undergraduate level or to do a primary teaching course which encompassed everything. He said that it would be sad to loose someone like me to the private sector as public schools needed good teachers.

Having looked into my options and the cost of retraining I decided that if I was going to do it I would be better off doing the masters teaching primary course as then it wold add to my skills and would also allow me to teach secondary, this givin me more options.

He also advised me that I should apply to schools directly for casual relief work in the meantime to gain experience in nsw schools. I went around to all my local schools with my cv, letter of application and paperwork and within 2 days was called in to do some causal work. You do have to 'sell yourself' and make the effort to meet the right people. Since the beginning of feb I have been working regularly doing causal work in a local school which is amazing.
The positives are that it is well paid, not stressful and you can leave without taking work home with you. Obviously the downside is that it is not guarenteed work and therefore financial security is not there, I am just lucky that I keep getting called in regularly.

I have now decided that I will try and apply for positions within catholic/private schools first before retraining as I am guaranteed a job there as my qualifications are more than enough. The downside is that jobs are few in this sector and competition is high, but I am remaining optimistic. I guess it's been a roller coaster of emotions but a move like this is always going to have its ups and downs.

I am just hoping that term 2 brings lots of job opportunities in my area!

Catherine83

Hi when I had my skills assessed back in 2011 I had to send all my transcripts off then so I already have all these obtained. The skills assessment wasn't a difficult process and it came back quite quickly. As long as you have 4 years training at degree level you will be fine.

Different states have different regulations about teaching qualifications. In Perth I would be ale to teach public and private in NSW where I am unfortunately your teaching degree must match components in our undergraduate degree, which mine does not. Looks like the private/catholic system is where I will be heading!

naomi18

Hello, I am currently studying a BA Hons, Primary education with QTS course, i get 132 days experience teaching in a school.
However, when i finish my 3 year degree, I want to teach in Australia befor undertaking my NQT year.

Do i need to complete me NQT year before i go to Australia or will i be able to get a teaching job without completing my NQT year?
Thank you

quoll

Is that a 4 year university course? If it isn't you won't be qualified to teach in Aus at all. Teaching in Aus is well oversubscribed with local new teachers so if you do plan on going for a year, don't bank on teaching.