I was wondering if anybody can tell me if it will help to do a HEA ? Does it help to get jobs both in primary/secondary school or even for higher education like universities and colleges? I am looking for full time academic position and less on teaching and so was not sure if this was worth doing now as I am totally focused on publishing my research and have very little time to fit in anything extra but if it helps, then I will consider it. At my University, I have seen nobody promoting this so don't know whom to ask.

I have seen some of the staff at my uni using the HEA membership letters after their names, and I am currently doing some teacher training at uni which qualifies me to join the HEA at some level, so it is applicable at uni level. However, someone told me that HEA had lost half its personnel in the last year and is less powerful now - I don't have any details on that, but maybe someone more familiar with it will comment.

All new lecturers have to do this, usually as a condition of passing their probation period. It's not called HEA but usually something like PG Cert in academic practice, which gives you the admission to the HEA fellowship. It's quite practice-based so to enrol on the course, you normally need to be doing a certain number of hours of teaching, so may not be viable at the moment. I also don't think it's something universities expect you to have before starting a post. It is only a qualification for universities, so for schools you'd need to do a PGCE or school-based training instead,