So I didn't get an interview for the teaching assistantship in my department which is paying the insanely low wages. I have to say, I'm a bit annoyed as they're only interviewing people who've taken the course and so are 'familiar with its structure'. I took a very similar course at another university, though have experience of (a different) Masters course at my uni.

Teaching positions seem impossibly hard to come by (which is why people will jump for next to no money) and as there is so little in my department it looks like I'm going to have to go without teaching experience. This is particularly riling when I've just finished a three day teaching course!

Sorry for ranting, I just wanted to get it off my chest!

Have you thought about putting in a speculative application to nearby universities at all? We've got several ex-polys near us, which don't really have many PhD students and so often they're keen to take on some of ours to do seminar teaching. You could just send a cv and cover letter saying what you could teach to relevant HoDs? It might be worth a try.

That seems odd - you'd pick up the structure as you went along! But you know that...Do they offer TAs casually? At unis I've been to it's either the lecturer teaching, or casual teachers. Can you approach some of the other lecturers to see if they have anything going?

Good luck.