Hi Sherrold,

It is great that you are considering becoming a teacher. Teaching is certainly challenging, but it can be immensely rewarding. There are few other professions that have the potential to make such a difference to individual lives – not only to a young person’s career, but to their wider interests, personal development, confidence and wellbeing.

Teaching is a graduate profession, and the early years sector is moving the same way, so you’ll need a degree as a starting point.

The Open University offers flexibility, quality and a huge choice of options. You could study a subject that you’re passionate about and would like to teach later on. Alternatively, you could study a degree with an education focus, choosing from courses such as early years, childhood and youth studies, or the teaching and learning of mathematics.

In addition to a degree, you need to undertake Initial Teacher Education or Training (ITET) such as a PGCE (or a PGDE in Scotland), and gain Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) which you can do at a wide range of higher education institutions around the UK, or through a school-based training scheme. There may be incentives for shortage subjects like science, technology and maths, while for other subjects, training places may be limited. It’s worth checking with training providers at an early stage, and having a look at the teaching jobs market to help with your planning – which could also have a bearing on your choice of first degree.

You may want to take a look at our Becoming a Teacher booklet which can be found here:

https://www.open.ac.uk/courses/careers/teaching

If you are studying to help with a career, I also recommend doing some careers research and getting advice. A good starting point, with some useful links, is this page from our Help Centre:

https://help.open.ac.uk/how-do-i-become-a

If you would like to discuss your options, you can call us on 0300 303 5303, Monday to Friday, 8:00-17:30. 

Our full contact details can be found here - https://help.open.ac.uk/contact/