Hi everyone!

I'm going to be starting teaching alongside my PhD in Sep and have been told that I can enrol on a Pg Certificate in Management of Learning and Teaching. Having done a quick google, it seems most other unis offer their research student teachers a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice instead... Does anyone know if their is any difference or if so, if one is better/more useful? There's a chance I could get on the latter at a linked uni but distance might make that a bit awkward so thought it was worth investigating!

Hi Caddie

I completed my PG cert, when I took a job as a lecturer four years ago. Mine was entitled Further, Higher and Adult Education, yet my colleague is completing a similar course which is now entitled Teaching and Learning for Professional Practice. Even more strange, is the fact that other colleagues who are studying for their PG Cert's, will gain a qualification entitled Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.  What you have to remember is that all these are from the same university!

Therefore I would not worry to much about the title of the course, they all cover more or less the same material and will have been fully validated and mapped against national requirements.

As long as you have a PG Cert in Teaching (regardless of title) this will aid you employability in the sector with all universities now wanting new staff to have such qualifications.

Also before looking at distance learning, you need to be aware that some of the assessment for the course will be observation orientated, with your tutors coming to assess you in the classroom whilst you actually teach a class.

My advice is go for it, it appears they are meeting the fees and so it is a very useful qualification to take

Good Luck

Anthony

It doesn't really matter what it's called so long as the Higher Education Academy recognise it as either entitling you (on successful completion) to apply for fellowship of the HEA (or as with a lot of the courses offered to new PhD students that it forms part of such a qualification). Like tester says while it won't make any difference to your chances of getting a job somewhere research intensive, it might help at a teaching intensive university, and it does mean you don't have to do it further down the line. Even if it's just a partial qualification, it's still worth doing to help you think through the teaching. (The course I did as a postdoc, I couldn't have completed in full as a PhD student as I didn't have a high enough level of teaching responsibility to e.g. redesign modules, but because I'd done an equivalent to the first module at my PhD granting institution, they gave me exemption from that module.)