Diploma of Education - information please!

DH has almost finished his Bachelor of Arts, which he's done entirely by correspondence, and he's looking at doing his Dip Ed next, to become a primary or secondary teacher.

I have so many questions!

Is it still 1 year anywhere, or only 2?

Where are good places to do it by corro? Part time?

When do you have figure out whether you want primary or secondary?

How much "in school" is there in the first year or two?

How much are study materials?

Are you more or less likely to be able to get a job in any given school, because of where you studied?

Is there still a huge demand for blokes?

How did you find it?

Thanks in advance :heartbeat:

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DH has almost finished his Bachelor of Arts, which he's done entirely by correspondence, and he's looking at doing his Dip Ed next, to become a primary or secondary teacher.

I have so many questions!

Is it still 1 year anywhere, or only 2?

Where are good places to do it by corro? Part time?

When do you have figure out whether you want primary or secondary?

How much "in school" is there in the first year or two?

How much are study materials?

Are you more or less likely to be able to get a job in any given school, because of where you studied?

Is there still a huge demand for blokes?

How did you find it?

Thanks in advance :heartbeat:

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RMIT is still running its Grad Dip Primary for 2014 but only full time as we are getting the masters as well which will take over Grad Dip.

In that course there is 45 days of placement in 2 blocks, one 20 straight days on 25 straight days.

Schools a very interested in male student teachers when im arranging placements because there isnt many of them!

cant help with the rest as i only deal in placements.

PM if you need some info and ill see what i can source for you

It's been a while since I've been looking - but I do know that if he wants to teach secondary it will depend on what subjects are in his Arts degree. You could usually do it 1 year FT and 2 years PT - NSW unis like CSU and UNE have offered it by distance in the past.

I have no authority on this, but a friend I was speaking to last weekend said most unis were dropping the Dip Ed in favour of a Masters instead (which is two years). He's starting his Masters of Ed next year. Not sure if this applies now, but your DH might want to consider getting the Masters instead in case the other is considered less relevant in future.

Male teachers are rare in primary schools and seem to be very popular!

Even with male teachers, it's still very difficult to get a job primary teaching. What were his arts majors?

A full time uni course would not likely work - we can't afford full time CC for the DSs when DH isn't earning an income.

But if he can do it part time by corro (other than the placements, of course) that would be great. I'm sure we could work something out for those couple of placements.

Will have to look into the Dip -v- Masters quandry.



Arts major is ancient history.

Has also done some english (literature, creative writing), generally history, linguistics, theology, etc.

Re having trouble though - I've never heard of any teachers (actual teachers, not teachers aides, in school disability facilitators, etc) not actually being able to get a job somewhere. Is that something that actually happens?

Getting permanent work can be very difficult, even temporary blocks are very competitive. Day to day casual is usually available but can be pretty soul destroying! Your DH needs to ask what subject combinations are needed. For example, in nsw English/History used to be common but Hist/geog is more in demand now, although unis are still advocating the old combo.

He'd either be going for a full time primary teaching job, or an English-Literature-History-RE secondary school one.

What primary and high schools have day-to-day casual teachers ??

Every school is going to need casual teachers to cover classes while the usuals are sick/training/sports trips etc.

I know maths is needed for secondary in NSW these days, but that's probably not much help for what he has studied.

You would be surprised at the number of teachers that appear to be permanent, but are really on a contract type system that gets renewed year to year at their school. A lot of these are because if they advertise a permanent position, there might be someone on a transfer list that the school is forced to take. So if they just make it a contract, they can get who they want. People get these contract positions by doing the hard slog at being a casual and the school seeing that they are a good teacher.

I've got something in my head that only 10% of graduates move directly into a permanent position in the public system straight out of uni - don't quote me on that though! The rest may move into Catholic/private and then heaps into casual/contract type.

Ah - substitute teachers. Didn't click that's what Amaunet meant - thanks girls! I remember my mum having to do a lot of subbing (mostly week or month long placements covering annual leave or LSL I think) back in the Jeff Kennet era when oodles of schools down here got closed down, including my mum's school, and then the one she got a job at after that ...

Yes, most of my teacher mates are on annual rolling-over contracts. A few have lucked out and got the all desired permanent placements, but they're mostly at private schools.

I have suggested to DH that in his final semester he consider doing a couple of quite different subjects (whether it be maths, media, psych, legal, geography, IT etc) to broaden his options in case he does end up wanting to teach secondary school but he's enjoying himself too much in the ones he's doing - and he can always do a first year intensive or night class later, through CAE down here if he needs to later.

Any other tips or thoughts, ladies?

Thanks :)

Charles sturt university runs a lot of its courses by distance ed, I had a little look and it doesn't seem to have a dip ed, per se, but perhaps he could get some credits in a bachelor of education and just do the necessary education subjects or something?? Worth having a look at what they offer re courses anyway.

I have a BArts and just enrolled in a bachelor of teaching (primary) at CSU. It's a graduate entry course that takes 2 years full time or 4 years part-time. It's offered for both primary and secondary and is all correspondence.

I don't start until next year but studied DE at CSU for my last degree and it was great. This course has 10 days placement in the first semester too for observation in classroom which I thought was a great idea to get a taste for it and be sure teaching is what you thought it would be :)

I'm concerned about the job prospects at the end too but who knows what he situation will be in a few years time.

Grad Dip is being replaced by the Masters. So after next year, it won't be offered anywhere, and one will need to do the 2 year Masters in its place. There is no intake after 2013 at Monash, nor at Deakin or UBallarat as far as I was told.

The Masters offered at Monash is specific - so you can either to the Masters in Primary or Secondary, it isn't combined. It is also offered distance, via OUA. It is two years, but I think it may only be offered distance as a part-time course, he will need to check. Even if he were to study full time, on campus, his schedule may only require 2-3 contact days anyway, so the issue with 'full time cc' may not be as big as it seems. Worth chatting to the admissions department.

Deakin offer trimesters, so that may speed the process up a bit, as it is a 1.5 year course with that set up. They do offer both the primary and secondary Masters off campus, but again, it is only part time.

Basically, the Grad Dip is not going to be an option for him unless he has already enrolled in it, or unless he gos to RMIT (as far as I know, they are the only people offering the Grad Dip for a 2014 intake.)

Thanks everyone!

Research to do.

CSU has a grad entry bachelor of secondary teaching again depends on his subjects from Arts degree. It's corro and 2 pracs which you can do in the second year

Not sure where you are, but the Ed system differs between states, so in terms of getting a permanent job, it can be very different. In Qld where I taught, over 90% of teachers were permanent. Meaning that they are guaranteed a job every year and that even if a school closes or drops numbers, you will still have permanent work within that district. You don't actually apply to teach a particular grade, just a district, then you can put in a preference for schools within that district. We also had a points based transfer system. So one of the best ways to get permanency was to teach in a remote location for a certain amount of time, earn permanency, then use the points you accumulate to be transferred to a preferred location. However, I know in Victoria that you apply for a particular position with a particular grade in a particular school (think that applies in WA too). Like you would with any other job. I'm on leave ('family responsibilities') from my permanent position at the moment - I get 7 years before I lose my permanency. A WA friend who is also on leave said she gets 3 years and I believe my Vic friend gets 5 (however she can go back to the exact grade and school she was teaching before whereas I go back to any school in my district).

In Qld, doing supply work was a great way to get contracts, which was a great way to get permanency...we'd often offer our prac students supply or short contracts, and in the case of male prac students, every single one I knew went on to long term contracts or permanency within 12-18 months. Mature age ones were snapped up even before prac ended! However, less than 10% get offered permanency straight up. A huge percentage are offered contracts from 1-4 terms (and most are in work pretty much full time as their contracts get renewed).a

If your DH was doing his course part time or by correspondence, there's a good chance he could pick up CC or aide work at the school or nearby centre, which would work out well financially and for your boys too :)

Teachers are a dime a dozen, but good teachers are rare and always get snapped up quick.

Ok, I've crapped on enough! ;)