Hi everyone,

My PhD is nearly wrapped up (I think...) and I do want to stay within academia for now. Having read WJ Gibson's advice for anyone doing a PhD to have a post-doc Plan B, and watching job cuts happen around me in my present institution, I wondered whether it was worth doing a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education? They are validated by the Higher Education Academy.

I vaguely remember seeing something about it becoming a requirement for everyone teaching in HE after 2010 to have a qualification in teaching, unless they've got a specific number of years of fulltime teaching experience, which I don't. Having a teaching qualification is one of the 'desirable' criteria on all job applications I see now for lectureships, along with a good research profile. I can't assume I will get an interesting academic job purely based on my PhD work because jobs are so scarce at the moment. Doing a PGCert in TL in HE looks like it would tick yet another 'person specification' box, but does anyone really bother with them when employing new lecturers on permanent contracts? I thought it might be useful to learn more about teaching and research, curriculum development etc, stuff you don't get to deal with on hourly paid teaching contracts. I've noticed that some institutions send new lecturing staff on them, so presumably they are seen as useful. Has anyone else considered doing one of these certificates?

I'm feeling extremely gloomy about my situation right now, as it seems to be a really crap time to be finishing a PhD in the arts. Any thoughts or advice would be very welcome! :-)

I've done one. You have to have a high tolerance for faddish educational theory, and I strongly suspect they were designed by people who haven't actually been near real students in a long time. But I quite enjoyed doing the pieces of coursework and if I were to ever get a lectureship, it would save time in the first year.
As to its usefulness in getting a job: my gut feeling is that it might be helpful for departments that don't enter the RAE/REF - the real teaching-focussed places but in my field at least, there never seems to be any jobs advertised at those places - they seem to really function almost entirely through hourly paid teaching staff. For depts entering the RAE/REF, then it's going to be publications and impact that matter above anything in the next year or so anyway. I saw a job process at my place last year and the sift seemed to be a) have you got a PhD in hand then b) were you enterable for the REF - anyone who couldn't meet both was out of the running and then they ranked by impact value of publications to get a longlist. It was only then that they started really looking at the details of the cvs and thinking about teaching etc. My HoD explained to all of us likely to be on the job market, that that was the only way of dealing fairly with people when you had 160 applications for a lectureship and had to give a reason to HR for rejecting each one. His advice was to apply like mad for postdocs to give yourself room to publish so that you had a chance of being competitive and not to get distracted by other things. Should add I'm also in w j gibson's field and it might not be as crazy in other fields.

I'm currently doing my PGCert LTHE alongside my PhD, and am finding it quite useful. I'm quite nervous when it comes to teaching and the PGCert has helped no end in raising my confidence. As far as I know as well, it's becoming a pre-requisite to lecturing jobs, and if nothing else, it's something more to add to your CV.

I'd so go for it personally!

Ruby - something I forgot. When I did mine last year, it was during year 1 of a 2 year postdoc. I did manage to get it free of charge as I counted as a fulltime member of staff but I think some were paying fees. Also with my institution you had to be able to show a contract for a certain amount of teaching at the university as otherwise you couldn't have completed the course as the assessments included teaching observations etc. Depending on your situation, I don't know whether either issue would be a problem for you.

Thank you both, that's very helpful!

Bewildered, I think you're probably right about it being more important in departments not entering staff for the REF. I was thinking maybe if research money and activity becomes more concentrated in the near future then there might be more lectureships at traditionally teaching-led universities, such as my own specialist institution. Maybe that's wishful thinking on my part though, as money-saving and job-slashing seems rife in many places right now, not just the newer universities.

It's the same at my place where staff with a certain amount of teaching hours get the fees waived, but it seems to be for a specific certificate in teaching in the art and design sector that's free. I thought it might be less useful for me in the longer term if I want to get out of this area. I'm interdisciplinary, social sciences and fashion/design history & theory, and not an arts practitioner, so I thought it might be better to do the PGCert LTHE which seems more generic in its content, and transferable to some extent across disciplines. I think I might have to pay for that myself though. I'll see what my employment prospects are next year....

Jinkim65, it does sound useful for confidence building too. I can't say I get excited at the thought of engaging with pedagogical theory, but at least it would dispel some of the mysteries surrounding teaching, learning and assessment that I feel I know absolutely nothing about.

Hi Ruby, I hope you're doing OK post PhD.

I've taken a generic over 16s teaching qualification and it was confidence building and often interesting, but I also found it repetitive and boring. I found doing things like schemes of work complete with what seemed like trillions of lesson plans a torturous chore. However! I feel I am a much better teacher for it, and it has given a massive confidence boost around students especially, it's mad emy job much easier.

Our tutors told us that PGCEs of any kind can be converted with a small amount of course work, they said the basics are the same and they're what s really important. It might be worth you while finding out it the free PGCE at your place can be converted to suit your needs.

Good luck :-)

Thanks Eska, that sounds a good idea, I'll check it out! Am keeping my fingers crossed that I'm still one of their internal funding success stories and everything will work out well if I put my mind to it and give it my best shot.:-)

Stars all round too.:-)