During the past year there has been an explosion of interest among graduates in teaching as a career, and teacher training providers have been inundated with applications for the primary level Post Graduate Certificate of Education. Among the many applicants vying for a place are Early Childhood Studies (ECS) graduates.
Last year nearly 8,000 students enrolled on primary PGCE courses across the country and the Graduate Teaching Training Registry, which processes almost all applications, predicts there will be few, if any, vacancies this term.
Indeed, a spokesman for the Teacher Training Agency says primary PGCEs are generally oversubscribed so course tutors can afford to be selective.
The PGCE course is generally acknowledged to be tough. But Jane Stedman, course leader of the Open Learning Part Time Primary PGCE at the Institute of Education, says, 'We are not interested in turning out people who are just good enough. We are turning out people who are going to be the best.
'It is an intensive course. The Government says we have to meet high standards. It is not just about gaining Qualified Teacher Status. This is a post-graduate qualification and the assignments are rigorous. They are at a higher level than many students have been accustomed.
'Some students did their degrees a long time ago and others, with degrees in subjects such as physics, are not used to writing in the way we demand of them.
'It is hard because you have to get your subject knowledge up to speed in all ten areas of the curriculum. It is hard because being a primary school teacher is hard work.'
Rule relaxation In the past, Early Childhood Studies (ECS) graduates faced a struggle to enrol on PGCE courses because many providers felt ECS degrees did not meet a Government stipulation that teachers' degrees should be in a national curriculum subject or 50 per cent of the modules making up a degree should be in a subject taught at primary level.
However, the introduction of the Foundation Stage and increasing emphasis on early years has led to a relaxation of the rules. Helen Tovey, programme convenor of the BA in Early Childhood Studies at Surrey University, Roehampton, says, 'A lot of our students from the BA in Early Childhood Studies go on to do the PGCE. Early years is seen as a subject specialism now whereas previously students had to have a national curriculum subject.'
An Early Childhood Studies degree can be a positive advantage, says Lucy Cooper who completed a PGCE - Advanced Study in Early Years - at University College, Chichester this summer having gained a first class ECS degree the previous year.
'People with, say, an English degree had never had experience of working in a school. I think it was a shock for them to go on school placement. When I did my ECS degree I did a placement in a special needs nursery and another in a reception class. Also, on an ECS degree you study child development and behaviour and know what children need to learn.
'To do a PGCE course, you have to be prepared to work extremely hard. The year flies by but at the end of it you have gained a career for life. You are a teacher.'
