Mode of Study

Part-time

Start Date

18th Sep 2024, 32 weeks

Location

City Campus

Cost

£ 1120

Overview

This is a course with live, weekly classes on Tuesdays, 3pm-5pm. Classes will take place online and on campus, alternating between City and Riverside campuses. Online classes will take place via Microsoft Teams.

The Professional Development Award (PDA) Teaching Practice in Scotland's Colleges is ideal if you are currently employed in a teaching role in professional, technical, vocational or further education, or equivalent.    

You will spend approx. one day per week doing coursework in your own time. The minimum time to complete the course is 165 hours.

Further details of the topics covered are provided in the section "what you study" below.

Entry requirements

Minimum entry requirements

Entrance qualifications are given below, but please note that relevant work experience will be taken into consideration.

This course is for those with under two years of teaching experience in teaching adult learners. It is aimed at those teaching or training in vocational contexts, the workplace, college and in universities.

You must be teaching groups of at least six adult learners in professional, technical, vocational or further education, or equivalent. You need to make your own arrangements for your teaching and have this in place before signing up for this course. This will not be arranged by the tutor team. You must be teaching courses that lead to qualifications awarded by external bodies eg. SQA, City and Guilds, or the national awarding body in your country. You must give details of the teaching practice arrangements which you will have in place during the course, on application, in the personal statement section of the application.

In addition, you are expected to have the equivalent of the following:

• Communication skills at SCQF level 6.
• Numeracy skills at SCQF level 4.
• IT skills at level 5.

Additional selection requirements

• You'll have an online interview where you can find out more about the course and tell us why you're interested in this subject area.
• You must be teaching (online or face-to-face) a minimum class contact time of 2 hours per week throughout the course and be delivering assessed qualifications to classes of at least 6 adult learners.
• You need to make your own arrangements for your teaching class contact time. This will not be arranged by the tutor team.
• Please describe these teaching arrangements in the personal statement section of your application. 
• You are required to have these teaching arrangements provisionally in place before you apply for the course. 
• You cannot be accepted onto the course if you have no teaching practice provisionally arranged.

What you study

On successful completion of this course, you will be awarded the Group Award comprising of two Scottish Qualifications Authority Higher National (SCQF Level 9) units based on the professional standards for educators in further education colleges.

This SCQF level 9 course is made up of 2 SQA units:

• Plan and prepare the learner experience in Scotland’s Colleges - J4N5 36.
• Learning, teaching and assessment in Scotland’s Colleges - J4N6 36.

Your course is organised in modules with a variety of assessed tasks:

• Class group profiling.
• Planning programmes.
• Planning learning sessions.
• Critical reflection on practice.
• Learning environment and resources.
• Assessing learning.

In addition, you will be observed teaching groups by a tutor in your own teaching situation. Observations are conducted via videos of teaching or face-to-face (in the Glasgow area). However, an additional charge may be incurred, depending on location and restrictions in place at the time of the observation.

After the course

Careers

City of Glasgow College provides a pathway to support your ongoing professional development.

Continuing Study

The PDA  provides an excellent grounding for the Teaching Qualification Further Education (TQFE). For candidates with limited HN qualifications, successful completion of the PDA allows you to apply for the TQFE at the University of Strathclyde. The PDA gives 20 credits at level 9 at Stirling University TQFE. 

Teaching

How the course is taught

Assessment methods