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Overview
This online course provides you with the Professional Development Award (PDA) Teaching Practice in Scotland's Colleges. The course is ideal if you are currently employed in a teaching role in professional, technical, vocational or further education, or equivalent. This online course is supplemented with monthly, online, live tutorials on Tuesdays 4pm-5pm.
In addition to the tutorials, you will spend an equivalent of one day per week doing coursework in your own time. The minimum time to complete the course is 165 hours.
Minimum entry requirements
Entry requirements are given below, but please note that relevant work experience will be taken into consideration.
You must be teaching groups of at least 6 adult learners in professional, technical, vocational or further education, or equivalent. You need to make your own arrangements for your teaching and have this in place before signing up for this course. This will not be arranged by the tutor team. You must be teaching courses that lead to qualifications awarded by external bodies e.g. SQA, City and Guilds, or the national awarding body in your country (please provide details on your application of your arranged teaching practice that you will be doing during the course).
In addition, you are expected to have the equivalent of the following:
- Communication skills at SCQF level 6.
- Numeracy skills at SCQF level 4.
- IT skills at level 5.
Additional selection requirements
- You'll have an online, phone or face to face interview where you can find out more about the course and tell us why you're interested in this subject area.
- You must be teaching a minimum class contact time of 2 hours per week throughout the course and be delivering assessed qualifications to classes of at least 6 adult learners.
- You need to make your own arrangements for your teaching class contact time. This will not be arranged by the tutor team.
- You must provide details on your application of your arranged teaching practice that you will be doing during the course.
What you study
On successful completion of this course, you are awarded the Group Award comprising of two Scottish Qualifications Authority Higher National (SCQF level 9) units based on the professional standards for educators in further education colleges.
The units are:
- Plan and Prepare the Learner Experience in Scotland’s Colleges J4N5 36.
- Learning, Teaching and Assessment in Scotland’s Colleges J4N6 36.
Your course is organised in modules with a variety of assessed tasks in:
- Class group profiling
- Planning programmes
- Planning learning sessions
- Critical reflection on practice
- Learning environment and resources
- Assessing learning
In addition, you will be observed teaching groups by a tutor in your own teaching situation. Observations are conducted via videos of teaching rather than face -to-face. Face-to-face observations can however be arranged in certain circumstances. However, an additional charge may be incurred, depending on location and restrictions in place at the time of the observation.
After the course
City of Glasgow College provides a pathway to support your ongoing professional development.
Continuing Study
The PDA provides an excellent grounding for the Teaching Qualification Further Education (TQFE). For candidates with limited HN qualifications, successful completion of the PDA allows you to apply for the TQFE at the University of Strathclyde. The PDA gives 20 credits at level 9 at Stirling University TQFE.
How the course is taught
This course is online. Distance learning mode is available for students who wish to complete their studies online.
This mode is made up of the following components:
- Approximately 165 hours of self-study, using our Virtual Learning Environment, Canvas. A breakdown of course hours and assessment schedule are provided.
- Monthly, online, live tutorials on Tuesdays 4pm-5pm. These are at the start of each module, in order to ensure you are fully prepared and confident at each point in the course.
- Assessments prepared and submitted throughout the course.
- Two observations of teaching. These are usually done online via video. If they are conducted in person by your tutor, they will be within a 50-mile radius of City of Glasgow College. If observations are carried out, outside this area, an additional fee will be charged to cover these costs.
- There is an online course induction and one support meeting per module. These are optional but strongly recommended, to ensure your success on the course.
- Communication throughout the course with tutors and peers is through a variety of means including collaborative tasks and live online video discussion.
- Live, synchronous online, video meetings. There are 8 support meetings (one for each module) on Mondays at 4pm-5pm. They are not compulsory but are highly recommended.