Working part-time while doing PGCE

[ChazmoBrittonic]

Hi all,

I've been in Hong Kong working in a tuition centre for seven months now and am looking to get into teaching. I've found a school I really like that is willing to let me do the Sunderland PGCE there, but I won't be employed by the school while I study. I'll need to continue working at the centre either part-time or full-time (not ideal, because the school is quite remote).

Does anyone have experience working alongside the PGCE? Was it more than doable, between placement and non-placement time?

Thanks

[mexmon]

I know many people who have been able to keep working while doing their practicum, albeit they were doing it in the school they were employed at… you have to consider that the most time consuming part of the practicum is writing detailed lesson plans of each lesson, plus creating resources, tests and, of course, the actual teaching. I don’t think your situation is impossible but it will be an intense couple of months!

[Baklava]

Hi, it's not easy at all to do PGCE while working part-time, but I know people who did it.

On one hand, PGCE with Sunderland is brief but very demanding and, especially during placements, it's hard to fit in part-time work too.
On the other hand, you just need to pass the course, no grades, so you could, in theory, do the bare minimum...

The focus should be on doing a good job teaching, the most important part of the process in my opinion, especially considering the school is your potential employer (plus, you know, kids relying on you to learn...).
So, do you think you can do a good job, even with limited time to study pedagogy and prepare lessons? I guess a lot depends on the amount of prior knowledge and teaching experience you have.

[ChazmoBrittonic]

Hi. Thanks, this is solid advice. I'm going to try and negotiate complete time off for the 6-week placements, so I can focus entirely on the practicum. The only time when I will need to work full-time will be the non-practicum months. I know that will be intense (I'll basically need to work a six-day week while and devote one day each weekend to bang out the studies).
I can't afford to live and stay in Hong Kong otherwise, so I'll try to make it work.

[ChazmoBrittonic]

Practicum aside, how possible would it be to do the study, non-practicum parts of the course while working full-time?