You will develop the professional and practical skills required of a teacher working in post compulsory education. The post compulsory sector encompasses a wide range of organisations from general FE colleges to universities, prisons, businesses and the voluntary sector, providing a diverse choice of employment opportunities

Units

• Assessment And Evaluation (PCE103-3) Compulsory
• Curriculum Design And Development (PCE107-3) Compulsory
• Planning And Preparing For Teaching And Learning (PCE101-3) Compulsory
• Professional Practice And Development (PCE108-3) Compulsory
• Professional Practice And Skills (PCE104-3) Compulsory
• Researching Practice (PCE106-3) Compulsory
• Teaching And Learning Process (PCE102-3) Compulsory
• Theories And Practice Of Inclusive Learning And Teaching (PCE105-3) Compulsory

The course adopts a submission based approach, making effective use of a submission proposal process, which enables you to contextualise the outcomes and ensures their relevance to your own professional practice. There are regular teaching observations and individual target setting will be used to ensure that you are you are making progress towards achieving the required professional standards.

The assessment strategy is outcomes-based. You will negotiate with your tutor, in consultation with your mentor, the evidence you will submit to address the specified unit outcomes. You have the opportunity to use a submission proposal or learning contract to confirm at the planning stage how you intend to meet the requirements. Your proposal/learning contract will be systematically scrutinised with you during a one-to-one tutorial, mapping the proposed actions and intended outcomes to the course learning outcomes and unit threshold criteria, to ensure that you are supported to satisfy both academic and professional requirements through your assessment activity.

Marking is on a pass/fail basis only.

This approach has been adopted for the following reasons;

• It ensures the relevance of submitted work to your learning needs, and encourages links between theory and practice.
• It responds to the diversity of settings and subjects you teach, providing you with an assignment which is relevant to and meaningful for your practice and context.
• It models the practice which we require of you as a teacher and assessor of learning.
• The specification of academic level is achieved by structured reference to the course-specific outcomes and threshold assessment criteria.
• The approach is student-centred and puts you in the driving seat. Again, it ensures the relevance of the course to your own teaching and develops your capacity to manage your on-going professional development.

The pass-fail marking is adopted as more appropriate for the negotiated, outcomes-based assessment regime. You will receive detailed feedback on your submissions both on the text itself and on the marksheet. The latter is in two parts; a feedback commentary on the work submitted, and a feedforward guide to how to make it even better for the next submission.

In some cases, particularly the Professional Practice Units, there are specific documentation requirements, such as the inclusion of teaching observation reports and excerpts from a professional reflective journal: these are set out in detail in the Handbook.

Timing of Assessments

There are submission deadlines for specific units in November, January, February, April and May, and a re-submission deadline in mid-August.

Work is then marked and moderated and samples sent to the external examiners, prior to the Exam Boards in June, and a re-sit Board in September.

Use will be made of formative assessment strategies throughout the course. This is a principle which we would expect you to adopt in your own teaching. You will be supported to become familiar with self- and peer-assessment approaches and to make effective use of feedback on both academic and practice-based aspects of the course. You will be encouraged to identify targets for your ongoing development using the Personal Development Planner to plan and monitor these with your tutor and mentor.

This course is primarily `in-service (although a pre-service route is available at certain locations), which means that all participants will already be employed in a teaching role within the post compulsory sector. QTLS is now required of all new teachers in state-funded further education. It is available not only to new entrants to teaching, but also to established staff who do not hold a recognised teaching qualification, as a portal to promotion and advancement.

In 2011, the Secretary of State has implemented Recommendation 9 of the Wolf Report on vocational education, that QTLS should be accepted as equivalent to QTS as a qualification for teaching in the compulsory sector.

The Certificate in Education (PCE) is also accepted as the generic teaching qualification for non-graduate staff in other more specialised areas of post-compulsory education and training, including public services (including uniformed services and the military), business training, and adult education.

The course is framed by a commitment to help you to develop the characteristics of a University of Bedfordshire graduate teacher. You will be challenged to explore theories of teaching and learning and to examine the implications of such theories for your own development. In doing this you will refine, form and reform your own principles, perspectives and values in relation to professional teaching practice. On completion of the course you will have the appropriate attitude, knowledge, skills and understanding to meet the needs of the childrens and schools workforce agenda.