Have you ever considered a career change but did not know where to start? Are you stuck in a dead-end job, or still looking for a way to reach your full potential? Then have you considered a career teaching technology in schools?
You may not yet know it, but today in Australia there is a chronic shortage of qualified Technology and Vocation Education and Training (VET) teachers in schools. Principals around the nation are crying out for teachers with the kind of technical knowledge and industrial experience that you probably take for granted. If you like the idea of working with young people and are curious to learn more about how you could turn your trade into a professional teaching career, then keep reading!
What is it?
The Bachelor of Technology Education course at La Trobe University is a specialist qualification unlike any other. It is the only University course that actively seeks and recruits experienced tradespeople for the specific purpose of preparing them to become qualified and registered school teachers in Victoria. Traditionally, tradespeople have faced significant barriers to entering Higher Education, which is something that makes this course particularly unique. At La Trobe, we value trade qualifications and industrial experience so much so, that we offer our students a massive two years of advanced standing (of a four-year teaching degree). In other words, for everyone accepted into the course, their study commitment is reduced by half.
What’s involved?
The course itself was originally designed with mature tradespeople in mind. It has many features including:
- Two years advanced standing in recognition of trade qualification & industry experience
- Choice of full or part-time studies
- Mid-year entry
- Weekend classes (so you can keep your day job while studying towards a career change)
- Blended learning (part online and part face-to-face)
- Endorsed by AEU as meeting the 2108 TAFE Teacher Agreement (MEA)
- Scholarship opportunities
- Other tradespeople just like you!
What are the career opportunities?
Students in this course are highly sort after by both TAFEs and secondary schools – to the point where the vast majority of our students are employed as teachers (in TAFE or on Permission to teach from the Victorian Institute of Teaching) before they even graduate. Today, trade qualified and industry experienced teachers are like gold-dust to secondary schools who currently struggle to equip their students with the technical know-how they need to prepare for their future careers and livelihoods.
If you have reached that point in life where you may be considering a change of pace, ready to move on to a rich and rewarding career that benefits yourself as well as the community, then maybe teaching is just opportunity you have been waiting for.
If you would like to know more about the Bachelor of Technology Education course, contact Karen at k.oreilly-briggs@latrobe.edu.au or call 03 9479 1325.
Dr Karen O’Reilly-Briggs is a trade qualified Metal Fabricator and AS1796 Pressure vessel welder, CSWIP Welding Inspector, AWI member, and the Course Coordinator of the Bachelor of Technology Education program at La Trobe University, Bundoora VIC.
