Qualifications needed?

VBuckley22

Hi Everyone,

I was referred to this site by a friend who is a teacher in Dublin. I am a qualified secondary teacher of English from New York and I'm trying to find out exactly what I need to be a qualified teacher in Ireland. I am currently obtaining my masters at Trinity in Irish Writing and would very much like to stay, or at least have the opportunity to stay and teach here. However, I've been given the run-around and have yet to get an actual answer. Some say I do need the HDip, while others are saying that I do not. I've received numerous websites to gander through, only to find that they only pertain to degrees obtained in Ireland.

Any advice or even if someone can point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Victoria

Terri26

To get a job you need the hdip now called teh PDE (I think that's what it's called). Some people are telling you that you do not need tHE dip because a few years ago could sub with just a degree. Lots of English teachers out there with the dip and no job so schools in general are not taking people on without the dip/PDE!

highly1111

You may not need to do the dip/PDE (postgraduate diploma in education) if you're already a qualified secondary school teacher.

You need to contact the teaching council of Ireland at www.teachingcouncil.ie as they are the organisation responsible for giving you a registration number which you'll need before you can get a job here. They assess irish and international qualifications before granting registration status. Mind you, they'll charge you for the assessment and tend to be the most incompetent shower ever (welcome to ireland!!) and it's probably a slow process. But they are the first place to start.

Good luck

VBuckley22

Thank you both for such a speedy reply! But as I was saying, I've recieved two answers so far, and both are telling me different things...hence my confusion and utter frustration.

I have contacted the Teaching Counsil in which, I was not the least bit happy with their reply. First, I think it was automated as it was giving me just rubbish websites to look through. Second, the websites given had NOTHING to do with me being an international teacher. The websites given to see if I was qualified were all universites from Ireland - I saw nothing that had to do with overseas teachers attempting qualification within Ireland.

The only thing they did say was the forward my address to them, in which they will mail me all neccessary paperwork that I need to fill out and send back. (No idea WHAT paper work that is, but I guess I'll have to try and see).

My biggest problem is the waiting process - if I have to do the HDip, then I have to start applying ASAP for universities (of which I've already missed the Trinity deadline). But I don't want to apply come to find that I don't actually need it...

I'm torn and I honestly have no idea what to do. I suppose the only thing I can do is fill out the neccessary paperwork and pray that whatever I'm filling out will actually be a step in the right direction....

whiteandlight

Unfortunately despite the problems, the teaching council is the only route to teaching in Ireland. You have to be registered with them to teach and in order to do that you will have to jump through their hoops and pay for the assessment of the qualification. There isn't even any point in jumping straight onto the dip because unless they recognise your primary degree you still wont be able to teach.

My advice would be to either ring them rather than email or turn up in person to maynooth business park where they are based and stay until you get some kind of a procedure to follow. All the information has to come from you, your degree transcript and details of all modules taken and their worth etc etc

looksee

Both your primary degree and your teaching qualification will have to be approved by the Teaching Council. This involves submitting all transcripts etc and for a fee they will look at them. Very slowly. There is no way round this, there is no list of 'well if you got your degree from this university it will probably be ok', other than from within Ireland. You cannot anticipate whether you will need to do an HDip/PDE here, they deal with every case individually.

This is the bit about international teachers from the TC website http://www.teachingcouncil.ie/applying-to-register/teachers-qualified-outside-of-ireland-qualifications-awarded-outside-of-eueea-countries.465.html

Good luck!