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After 20 or so years of sideways career moves, it's time to stop messing around and move upwards, but I need to retake my English GCSE while still working full time.
Has anyone done this recently and can recommend a provider? Or is it better to look at local colleges? I have done some research already but wanted some experiences from the STW hivemind before committing.
Are you needing equivalent to English grade c (also known as a pass in English)? If so, functional skills level 2 is the award you are after. If you want the teaching aspect of it, seek out your local FE college and they will do a course, often for free, usually at different time slots so you can fit it around work. If you back yourself (and there are self assessment tests online so you can have a go) then you could go straight to assessment using an organisation like https://passfunctionalskills.co.uk/functional-skills-english-level-2-past-papers/
I have no affiliation or experience of this company, but there are a few around.
Thanks @lapierrelady,
To give some context, the ultimate goal is to get into teaching, I spoke to the Get Into Teaching folks and they said that some schools will accept an equivalent award but many prefer the proper qualification.
Have you thought about distance learning if you're working full time e.g.
https://www.nec.ac.uk/courses/english-language-gcse/
Slightly biased recommendation - my dad used to run the place many years ago!
Best advice I can give is just change the grade on your CV, no one checks that far back 😂
Now all the younguns with straight A’s basically speak their own language anyway..
Had to do mine a few years ago to get into uni
I used local college but it meant waiting for a September start then taking a full school year of evening classes before taking the exam, which I could have got the C I needed on had I taken it on the first day of class which was annoying
Local college was a nightmare to deal with as well but may not be the case for you
So if you need the actual classroom stuff to get there or need to get an A that is a good route but if you can spell and only need a C I’d go online as I believe there are some much faster self taught courses
Ignore sillysilly. When I did my pgce I assumed that as I was showing them my degree certificate in English they would not need to see my gcse certificate in English. I was wrong, and I had to dig it up from wherever it was (I might even have had to send off for a new copy, I cannot remember for sure).
Anyway, I was allowed to join the course but my loan was delayed for months while this was sorted out. They will definitely want to see your English and maths gcse certificates (or equivalents).
Your county council should have an adult skills hub where they will offer GCSE courses for free. Local FE should offer the same. Don't go to anyone who wants you to pay. All the providers will be getting funding from the ESFA to run these for zero cost to learners.
I work for my local county council running GCSE classes. Generally they are 3 hours a week up until the exam. Some may offer a fast track starting in Jan, but usually 6 hours a week.
Before joining, they'll run an initial assessment to see the levels you're at and to see if you'll need any extra support.
Best advice I can give is just change the grade on your CV, no one checks that far back 😂
Don't get a job in the public sector then! Though seeing certificates with "O" levels on does confuse them.
Times have changed. When I started teaching in 1984 all I had to provide was my DFE number as it was then.I didn’t even have to show the certificate. I didn’t show any of my exam certificates to join my degree course either, as I joined a few weeks late (Long story)it was all done by a phone call to my college IIRC. I too didn’t get my grant sorted for three months as a result
I didn’t show any of my exam certificates to join my degree course either,
A friend of my Engineering course failed his 2nd year exams and when they looked into his record, turned out he had just lied about his A levels - so was kicked out rather than offered a resit...
For my current teaching job I had to show my o grades.
It is odd when you have degree (PhD) and pgce both of which also asked for o grades/H grades/CSYS (I am that old). So yeah look out those old certificate s.
Find out what you are up against. This is a good site for past papers and notes. They do English
https://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/past-papers/
Maybe do a few papers and see if you can get a private tutor to mark them and see where you are now. You could ask some local schools if they could enter you as an external for the January exams, they will charge you for this. I know the private schools here do this.
I did mine at a secondary school running evening classes close to town centre. The local FE college was a "meat market" I put off for a while, and at the edge of town. The secondary school then lost everyone's records so I can't produce a certificate for a certain country that wants it. Can't get specific work there. Bummer.
Anyhow, FE colleges. Ugh!
I've actually got a couple of postgrad level qualifications now. The main in teaching as L2 that which I had to go back to that secondary school to take. And this year I'll probably take the training to become similar to the tutor who taught me, I guess. An FE institution tutor. Ugh!
I did mine at a secondary school running evening classes close to town centre.
My Mum used to teach classes (Maths) in the evenings for adults looking to score their GCSEs.
Back then I think it tended to be FT teachers and/or supply staff moonlighting, dunno if it's become a bit more structured but the staffing seemed a bit more ad-hoc/voluntary back then (80s/90s).