Do schools actually recognise these courses?

Hi

I am looking for a course to get me in to being a teaching assistant. I do not have a school placement as my current job is full-time and I have asked to vary my hours to volunteer at school, but been refused. So for the moment I am looking at courses which do not require a placement.
The problem I am having is that there are so many around, and most of them don't seem to have a qualification type that I recognise, which makes me worry that schools wont accept them. I don't want to waste time and money doing a useless course.
My other choice would be the new QCF award which does not need a placement, but seems to be a very short course and so might not count for much.

Can anyone advise whether any of these courses are worth it?

 

Hi

I am looking for a course to get me in to being a teaching assistant. I do not have a school placement as my current job is full-time and I have asked to vary my hours to volunteer at school, but been refused. So for the moment I am looking at courses which do not require a placement.
The problem I am having is that there are so many around, and most of them don't seem to have a qualification type that I recognise, which makes me worry that schools wont accept them. I don't want to waste time and money doing a useless course.
My other choice would be the new QCF award which does not need a placement, but seems to be a very short course and so might not count for much.

Can anyone advise whether any of these courses are worth it?

 

Try your local authority website to see if there is a list of accepted qualifications. To be honest, I don't know of any accepted ones which don't involve time spent in a placement and I think most heads would be very wary of these for obvious reasons. Even though my training course was full-time, rather than the modern NVQ-type thingy, it still required many, many hours in different educational settings, all of which had to reach an appropriate standard in order to achieve the qualification.
Afraid I have never heard of the QCF award so can't comment on it. If you have previous experience and can get a reference from a school then it is feasible that you might be considered for a post without a recognised qualification (even though I firmly believe that every TA should be qualified I am aware that there are still people posting on here who have been employed without a relevant qualification!)

 

I did the BTEC level 2 without stepping foot in a school with ICS.

 

I agree that you do have to do some hours in a school, I did 6 months voluntary work then was advised by the headteacher to do a teaching assistant course. To be a general teaching assistant you only need a level 2, however I was advised to take a level 3 which is the advanced teaching assistant qualification. What ever course you do good luck, I love my job as a gta they are very hard jobs to get and keep in the current financial climate, but VERY rewarding. Just one thing to remember, TA pay is very low, and here in North Yorkshire I am only paid 45 weeks in the year, not everyone realises that you are not paid when the kids are off.

 

Hi
This is my first post(only signed up yesterday).
As far as i was aware, in order to qualify you need a certain amount of hours in a placement setting. I am currently doing the NCFE Level 2 Teaching Assistant course through my Adult Education Service (manchester). We have been led to believe this is the equivalent to the same level NVQ.
I also worked full time up untill staring in September of last year and had to reduce my hours by a day and a half in order to do the theory (one day) and placement (half day in school). Luckily my employers are very felxible when it comes to request for different working hours.
Ive not heard of the other course you mentioned so can't help there sorry. I could always ask my tutor if you would like for her opinion or guidance?

 

Hi,I did CACHE level 2,this needed a placement in school. To be honest ,if you could do a course without a placement I doubt if any school would employ you as there isn't really a substitute for hands on experience. I only needed 3 hours a week,thats about one afternoon. It didn't have to be every week,I could have done a whole week in one go.Maybe you could use a couple of weks of your holiday?? Hope this helps ( :

 

Thanks for the information about QCF, picsgirl - I did look it up when it was mentioned on here and it sounds like an improvement on the NVQ in that it seems there may be less opportunity for variations in assessment - in my experience some NVQ assessors were very easily satisfied, whereas others were much more exacting!
The key skills are a definite step in the right direction and 15 hours placement every week for 24 months is a bit closer to the hours I had to do for NNEB - can't remember exactly, could have been 1200, which was split across different age groups.
Good luck with your course!